The Massachusetts pay transparency law: what employers have to post

Key takeaways

• The Massachusetts pay transparency law, M.G.L. c. 149, s. 105F, requires employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts to put a pay range in every job posting, a rule in effect since October 29, 2025.
• A pay range under Section 105F is the annual salary range or hourly wage range the employer reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for the position at the time.
• Covered employers must also give the pay range to an employee offered a promotion or transfer, and to any current employee or applicant who asks for it.
• Employers with 100 or more Massachusetts employees that file federal EEO reports must send a copy to the Secretary of the Commonwealth by February 1 under M.G.L. c. 149, s. 105E.
• The Attorney General’s Office enforces both sections: a warning for a first offense, a fine of up to $500 for a second and up to $1,000 for a third.
• Until October 29, 2027, an employer has 2 business days to fix a posting after a Notice to Cure letter from the Attorney General’s Office before a fine applies.

The Massachusetts pay transparency law is a state statute that makes employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts disclose a pay range in job postings and to workers who ask. If you own or manage a business in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline or any other Massachusetts city or town and you have reached that headcount, every ad you run for a specific job has to carry the range. The Legislature passed it as Chapter 141 of the Acts of 2024, An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency, which Governor Maura Healey signed on July 31, 2024. The Attorney General’s Office calls it the Wage Transparency Act.

This guide covers who counts as a covered employer, what a posting has to say, what you owe current employees, the separate EEO report filing for larger employers, the penalties and the cure period. The rules are set by the state. No Boston ordinance changes them.

What does the Massachusetts pay transparency law require employers to post?

The Massachusetts pay transparency law requires a covered employer to disclose the pay range for a specific position in the posting for that job. The duty is in M.G.L. c. 149, s. 105F, which took effect on October 29, 2025.

A posting is any advertisement or job posting meant to recruit applicants for a particular, specific position. Chapter 141 of the Acts of 2024 says the definition includes recruitment done directly or through a third party, so an ad placed by a recruiter or staffing agency on your behalf is covered too.

A pay range is the annual salary range or hourly wage range that you reasonably and in good faith expect to pay for the position at that time. According to the Attorney General’s Office, the range can run from the lowest to the highest amount you believe in good faith you would pay for the advertised job when you post it. The statute and the Attorney General’s guidance read for this guide do not list bonuses or benefits as required parts of the range.

Which employers does the Massachusetts pay transparency law cover?

The Massachusetts pay transparency law covers any public or private employer with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts. The Attorney General’s Pay Transparency in Massachusetts page reads that threshold as 25 or more employees whose primary place of work was Massachusetts during the prior calendar year.

The Attorney General’s FAQs set out how to count:

• Full-time, part-time, seasonal and temporary employees on the payroll all count.
• Headcount is figured once a year as an average: add the number of employees on payroll in each pay period, then divide by the number of pay periods.
• A pay period with nobody on payroll counts as zero.
• A remote worker in another state counts only if that person’s primary place of work is Massachusetts.

A business that averages fewer than 25 employees is outside Section 105F. Some workers are also left out of the count under M.G.L. c. 149, s. 1: minors under 18 in domestic service in the employer’s home, agricultural workers, and employees of certain nonprofit social, fraternal, charitable, educational, religious, scientific or literary organizations.

Does the pay range rule apply to remote, tipped and commission jobs?

The pay range rule applies to every position whose primary place of work is Massachusetts, according to the Attorney General’s Office. That includes a job that can be done remotely from a Massachusetts worksite and a remote worker whose primary place of work is Massachusetts. An employer based in New Hampshire or New York is covered once 25 or more of its employees have Massachusetts as their primary place of work.

Commission and piece-rate jobs have their own instruction. Where pay for the position is based on a piece rate or a commission, the Attorney General’s FAQs say the piece rate or commission range must be included in the posting. Hourly jobs are posted with an hourly wage range and salaried jobs with an annual salary range.

What do you owe current employees and applicants under Section 105F?

Section 105F gives current employees and applicants a right to the pay range in three situations beyond the job posting. A covered employer must provide the pay range:

• to an employee who is offered a promotion or a transfer to a new position with different job responsibilities;
• to an employee who already holds a position and asks for its range, even when the job is not vacant;
• to an applicant for a specific position who asks for it.

An applicant is anyone applying for a particular position. The Attorney General’s Office says the law does not limit that group by qualifications. Neither the statute nor the Attorney General’s guidance read for this guide sets a number of days for answering a request, so answer promptly and keep a record of what you sent.

Retaliation is unlawful under Section 105F. An employer cannot fire or otherwise punish an employee or applicant for asking for a range, complaining to the employer or to the Attorney General, or testifying in a proceeding.

Who has to file EEO reports with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and when?

EEO reports must be filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth by employers that had at least 100 employees in Massachusetts during the prior calendar year and already file the same reports with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. An EEO report is a federal workforce form, such as the EEO-1 Employer Information Report, that breaks down a workforce by race, ethnicity, sex and job category. M.G.L. c. 149, s. 105E creates no new report. You upload a copy of the one you gave the EEOC.

Every report is due by February 1. The schedule depends on the form:

Federal report	Who files it	Due to the Secretary of the Commonwealth	First due
EEO-1	Private employers	February 1 every year	2025
EEO-3	Local unions	February 1 of odd-numbered years	2025
EEO-4	State and local governments	February 1 of even-numbered years	2026
EEO-5	Elementary and secondary school systems	February 1 of odd-numbered years	2025

Filing is done through the upload link on the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s EEO data reports page, which accepts PDF, JPEG and PNG files. The file name has to identify the legal name of the filing entity and the report type. The page lists no filing fee.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) receives the reports from the Secretary and publishes aggregate figures only. Individual reports are not public records. According to EOLWD’s workforce data reporting FAQs, the Massachusetts deadline stays February 1 even if the EEOC moves its own deadline, and a federal contractor with 50 to 99 employees is not covered.

What are the penalties for breaking the Massachusetts pay transparency law?

Penalties for breaking the Massachusetts pay transparency law rise with each offense, and the same schedule applies to the EEO report filing in Section 105E:

1. First offense: a warning.
2. Second offense: a fine of up to $500.
3. Third offense: a fine of up to $1,000.
4. Fourth and later offenses: the civil citation process in M.G.L. c. 149, s. 27C(b)(1) and (2).

The Attorney General has exclusive jurisdiction to enforce the posting, promotion and request duties in Section 105F, and all of Section 105E. Both sections say a violation does not carry the triple damages available under M.G.L. c. 149, s. 150 for unpaid wages. For counting purposes, all job postings made by the same employer within a 48-hour period can be treated as one offense.

Workers and applicants who believe an employer broke the law can file a workplace complaint with the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division. The Fair Labor Hotline is (617) 727-3465, open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

How long does the 2-business-day cure period last?

The 2-business-day cure period for pay range violations lasts until October 29, 2027, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Until that date, an employer that receives a Notice to Cure letter from the Attorney General’s Office has 2 business days to correct the defect before a fine is imposed. Chapter 141 of the Acts of 2024 set the period at the first 2 years after each section took effect.

EEO report filers no longer have that grace period. The Attorney General’s Office lists October 29, 2026 as the end of the cure period for Section 105E, so a report due on February 1, 2027 gets no 2-day window after a notice.

What should you recheck before you act?

Each item below was checked on November 13, 2026 and can change:

• The 25-employee and 100-employee thresholds and the counting method: confirm on the Attorney General’s Pay Transparency in Massachusetts page, whose FAQs were last revised November 13, 2025.
• The Attorney General’s Wage Transparency Act guidance, revised January 15, 2026: check for a newer version, including any statement on bonuses, benefits or response times.
• The cure period end dates of October 29, 2026 for EEO reports and October 29, 2027 for pay ranges: confirm with the Attorney General’s Office.
• The February 1 EEO report deadline and the accepted file formats: confirm on the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s EEO data reports page or with its Citizen Information Service at 1-800-392-6090.
• The fine amounts of $500 and $1,000: confirm in M.G.L. c. 149, s. 105E and s. 105F on malegislature.gov.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules and fees change; confirm the current requirements with the agency named before you file or pay.

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