FAQs Provide Details on Workforce Demographic Reporting for Massachusetts Employers

Quick Hits

• Massachusetts issued new FAQs containing details for employers on how they can meet their obligations when reporting wage data pursuant to the state’s new pay transparency law.
• Employers in Massachusetts will need to submit workforce demographic information to the state each year under a new law.
• Covered employers must submit their most recently filed EEO-1 report to the state by February 3, 2025. Employers need not provide customized reports, nor do they need to include pay data.

The federal government requires certain employers to submit workforce demographic data in a report, called an EEO-1 form, each year. On July 31, 2024, Governor Maura Healey signed the Francis Perkins Workplace Equity Act, which requires Massachusetts employers with one hundred or more employees (and which are subject to EEO-1 reporting obligations) to send their most recent EEO-1 report to the state each year.

While the statute anticipated that EEO-1 reports would include wage data (which had been the case several years ago), that has not happened at the federal level. As such, employers need not submit any wage data, but rather only what is currently required under federal law. Multistate employers can file their companywide EEO-1 reports and do not need to create state-specific reports.

Covered employers were originally required to submit their EEO-1 reports to the state by February 1, 2025, but because February 1 falls on a Saturday this year, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) confirmed in the FAQs that it will accept filings through February 3, 2025.

The FAQs also note that starting on October 29, 2025, the law will require Massachusetts employers to list a salary range in most job postings. Additional guidance is expected to be forthcoming.

Next Steps

Massachusetts employers can check here for the link to submit an EEO-1 report, which is due February 3, 2025. The EOLWD website states that an online portal will be posted there as soon as it is available. While the deadline to comply with pay transparency in job postings is not until the end of October, employers may want to start taking steps now to ensure they will be in compliance once that aspect of the law is in effect.

Ogletree Deakins will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Massachusetts, Multistate Compliance, OFCCP Compliance, Government Contracting, and Reporting, and Pay Equity blogs as new information becomes available.

Mark H. Burak is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ Boston office.

James A. Patton, Jr., is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ Birmingham office.

This article was co-authored by Leah J. Shepherd, who is a writer in Ogletree Deakins’ Washington, D.C., office.

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