Pay Transparency in Cleveland and Massachusetts Take Effect in October

The pay transparency laws that were signed into law in the springtime are coming to fruition this October. Both the city of Cleveland, OH and the state of Massachusetts will be seeing new pay transparency guidelines in full effect.

Massachusetts

While the original effective date was reported as July 31, 2025, one year after its original signing, the Massachusetts Constitution mandates an additional 90-day waiting period. Thus, the new effective date became October 29th, 2025, and it is soon approaching.

Starting October 29th, private and public employers with 25 or more Massachusetts employees must provide pay range information to applicants, employees who are offered a promotion or transfer to a new position, as well as to current employees who enquire about their own pay range. This law applies to advertisements or job postings intended to recruit applicants, including by third parties or staffing companies that post positions on your behalf.

Along with these pay transparency updates, employers with 100 or more Massachusetts employees must also submit their annual EEO-1 report and pay data to the Commonwealth. This is only the case for private or public employers who both (a) have 100+ Massachusetts employees and (b) are subject to aggregated wage data reporting on the EEO-1 report. However, the EEOC is currently not implementing the EEO-1 ‘component 2’ (pay) data reporting, nor are we aware of any plans announced by the commissioners to collect EEO-1 ‘component 2’ data in the foreseeable future. Therefore, organizations do not need to provide their EEO-1 ‘component 2’ data to Massachusetts, but do need to submit their EEO-1 reports to the State of Massachusetts annually via a link on the State’s Corporations Division website. Berkshire will continue to watch the Massachusetts legislature and will alert our readers and clients to any proposed amendments which may align Massachusetts with pay data collection being currently performed in states like California and Illinois.

For more information on Massachusetts pay transparency law, you can read Berkshire’s previous full write-up here.

Cleveland, OH

Starting October 27th, private employers with 15 or more people within Cleveland, OH, as well as any employment agency acting on behalf of the employer, must provide salary ranges on all job announcements that are being advertised as well as “banning the box” on asking for salary history.

Salary ranges must be provided in advertisements, job postings, or any external or internal notifications for positions that will be performed in Cleveland’s geographic boundaries. This includes any postings done for foreign nationals, as well as any employment agency postings acting on behalf of the employer.

For more information on when the use of salary history is and is not allowed, you can read Berkshire’s full write-up on the Cleveland pay transparency law here.

While this will be fully in effect come Halloween, there is no reason to be scared this spooky season. Reach out to Berkshire Associates for all of your pay transparency needs.