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“How much do you make?” has long been considered a rude question. But research suggests that secrecy around earnings can help sustain gaps between what men, women, and people of color earn. A new Massachusetts law aims to narrow those disparities by throwing some light on the problem.
The law, which fully comes into effect today, requires Massachusetts employers to post pay ranges on job listings. It also lets current employees request salary information and mandates that bigger firms submit pay and demographic data to the state. Governor Maura Healey signed the law last year, and more than a dozen states now have similar ones.
Yet there are still big questions about whether it’ll have the desired effect. Here’s what to know.
Starting today, employers must include a minimum and maximum salary or hourly wage for any job they advertise. The range must reflect what the employer “reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for such position at that time.”
The law also requires employers to disclose pay ranges to current employees who apply for promotions or transfers and to those who ask for the range for their current role, whether or not there’s an opening.
Which employers are covered?
The law applies to companies with 25 or more employees whose primary place of work is Massachusetts, including those who commute or work remotely.
The list of employers required to supply pay data to the state is shorter, covering those with 100 or more Massachusetts workers. Companies must include gender, race, ethnicity, and job category data each year (every other year for unions and public-sector jobs), which the state will aggregate and publish. That provision took effect earlier this year.
The Massachusetts attorney general. Employers who don’t follow the disclosure requirements can be fined.
The law also bars retaliation against employees and job applicants who allege violations or testify about them. Workers who believe they’re victims of wage discrimination can bring claims to the attorney general’s office.
How might this narrow wage gaps?
Supporters say transparency is its own solution. Before today’s rules took effect, law firms recommended that companies audit their pay practices to correct existing disparities. Many companies already published salary ranges, but mandating them may encourage some to raise pay in order to outbid rivals and attract talent.
Disclosing salary ranges also could boost pay for female applicants and those of color, who often lowball their salary asks relative to white men, and help current employees figure out whether they’re being underpaid. (The law doesn’t give you direct access to co-workers’ salary ranges, but the Globe’s Kristin Nelson argues that “in practice, it may be possible for employees to get a sense of what colleagues in the same roles are making.”)
If the law works, it will help counteract a nationwide trend. For the first time on record, the gender pay gap in the US increased two years in a row. In Greater Boston, women made 79 cents for every dollar a man made in 2023, according to the Boston Women’s Workforce Council — more than prior years but on par with the national figure. And as is true nationally, race widens the gap even further: Black women and Hispanic women in Boston made about half what white men did in 2023.
Just because a pay range is publicized doesn’t mean an applicant will net the maximum figure, and some observers think the law is vague enough that companies could advertise ranges so broad as to be meaningless. It also doesn’t require companies to disclose bonuses or benefits.
There may be more loopholes, too. In some places with wage transparency laws, companies have lowered salary ranges for open roles to avoid angering current employees. Others have reduced men’s pay without raising it for women, narrowing the wage gap without making anyone better off.
🧩 8 Across: Sushi fish | 🌤️ 53° Cool and breezy
House wins: The arrival of Wynn Resorts’ Encore Boston Harbor casino six years ago has accelerated a housing and redevelopment boom in Everett, a longtime industrial city.
Matthew Farwell: The former Stoughton police detective accused of killing Sandra Birchmore now faces an additional charge for the death of Birchmore’s unborn fetus.
Middlebury suicide: Police found the body of Lia Smith, a 21-year-old senior, on the college’s Vermont campus. Smith, a trans woman, was a diver on the school’s swim team.
ICE in New England: About 120 New Hampshire cities and towns declared themselves “sanctuary communities,” drawing criticism from the Republican governor. And a Providence teenager detained in March and taken to Colorado finally appeared in court, where she pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.
Massachusetts’ next congressman? Kamala Harris endorsed Dan Koh, a former Biden administration official running to succeed Representative Seth Moulton, who is challenging Senator Ed Markey.
Prisoner payout: 150 inmates at Massachusetts’ maximum-security prison will receive a $6 million class-action settlement from the Department of Correction after claiming that prison staff brutalized them in 2020.
Escalation: The US military struck four more boats in the Pacific that the Trump administration said were ferrying drugs, killing 14 people and leaving one survivor. (AP)
Who’s driving this bus? Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 presidential campaign bus has been spotted all over the country. His campaign and the Department of Health and Human Services say they aren’t the ones operating it.
Left in the cold: The Trump administration hasn’t given states money to help low-income residents pay their winter heating bills, citing the shutdown. “You’ll have people die,” one official warned. (WBUR)
Israel-Hamas war: Israel struck Gaza after accusing Hamas of killing an Israeli soldier and staging the discovery of a hostage’s body. Hamas called the strikes “criminal” and said it remained committed to the cease-fire, which Israel later said it would resume. (CNN)
By David Beard
🎃 What happened to Halloween candy? Devra First chronicles gummies that look like celebrities, unholy hybrids of treats that should never be combined, and super-crazy-XTRA-sour candies coated in a gentle snow of citric acid. And if you’re trick or treating, pack an umbrella — rain is brewing for New England.
😎 Friendship is elusive: It also keeps you young. Kara Baskin has seven ways to foster it, including “embrace your weirdness.” Also, in the Halloween spirit, forget about people who ghost you.
👨🍳 Don’t call me chef! At 90, Jacques Pépin is still a culinary sensation. Ah, but he has another big-time obsession.
⛷️ 100 days to go: Will Lindsey Vonn dominate the slopes again? Will US men’s and women’s figure skaters win gold for the first time since 1960? Here’s what to look for ahead of the Winter Olympics in Milan.
🧑🤝🧑 ‘The Feels’: Singles are paying $200 to hold each other in dark rooms. (USA Today)
💌 Love Letters: In 16 years doing this column, the Globe’s Meredith Goldstein got her first question with this topic: Is my new love using me for vegan cooking lessons?
🏋️♂️ Part satire, all profit: Meet the fitness instructor getting rich off the private equity bros he mocks.
Readers responded to Billy Baker’s confession that he just couldn’t understand the love of Costco — partly because the cheap golf balls he wanted were out of stock.
Joan Eisenstodt wrote this: “We dropped our membership for years until I lost my hearing to COVID/long COVID … Testing is free at Costco. The service is superb. My hearing aids first were loaners at no charge. Month later my own calibrated for me. $1,499. Since I’ve returned twice for fixes. No charge. … Now go online and order their golfballs. Then when your hearing goes, you’ll renew.”
On another topic, Amber Krasinski writes about a Watertown restaurant offering free frozen prepared meals to people losing SNAP benefits Nov. 1. The restaurant, Ritcey East, also started a community food drive where people who donate nonperishable food items get a coupon for free fried pickles. What’s your community doing to help? Let us know!
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by David Beard.
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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.
