MA Is One Step Closer To Equal Pay Thanks To Bill Advancement

MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts is one step closer to closing the racial and gender pay gaps after officials advanced legislation Monday that mandates transparency, according to the Boston Globe.

The Frances Perkins Workplace Equity Act, named after the first woman to serve as US Labor Secretary, combines multiple pieces of legislation that would strengthen the state’s existing Equal Pay Act passed in 2016, officials said, according to the Globe.

The bill would require employers with 25 or more full-time workers to disclose salary ranges in job listings, according to the text of the law. It would also require organizations with 100 or more full-time employees to publish information about workforce demographics. The Legislature's Labor and Workforce Development Committee advanced the bill on Monday.

The bill has now been endorsed by the state's biggest group, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, as the group's president said that equal pay would have a positive ripple effect on the state's economy.

"This is really going to be a tool to make Massachusetts more competitive because we are putting out there that this is a place where you want to live and work because we are going to pay you fairly," AIM president Brooke Thomson told the Globe.

Read the full report in the Boston Globe.