Employers with 25 or more employees will have to post pay ranges alongside job openings, under a new law Gov. Maura Healey signed Wednesday afternoon.

While the bill doesn’t set specific guidelines for the range, it must be a “good faith” reflection of what the employer plans to pay.

Without iron clad requirements, a position that generally gets $20-25 will be listed with the range of $15-30 and, surprise surprise, the interview will reveal the wage is $17.

I’d say this’ll end up in court when and the company will argue they scale the wage by experience and therefore operated in “good faith”.

The bill would also require those same employers to share the pay range whenever an employee is getting promoted or transferred to a new position — and it gives workers the right to request info on their current job’s salary range at any point.

Not sure what right this provides that the right to discuss compensation doesn’t.

From what I’ve gleaned from other articles I found, enforcement of anything in this bill falls to the Attorney General. This is an important detail as the bill does not include a private right of action on behalf of aggrieved employees or applicants.

The penalties, once again, are just a cost of doing business:

Second offenses are subject to a fine of not more than $500.

Third offenses are subject to a fine of not more than $1,000.

Fourth or subsequent offenses are subject to civil fines of $7,500 to $25,000 per violation, depending on the circumstances.

Should the stars align and a company is found to be in violation,

The new law specifically states that violations are not subject to treble damages under the Massachusetts Wage Act.

Even in the laws told to protect the people, we must ensure to protect the businesses.

Thank you for the analysis! I was afraid that this had no teeth and I think that fear may have been correct.