Wage transparency bills pushed on Beacon Hill as a way to eliminate gender pay gap

BOSTON — It’s a chronic problem in the workforce. Women make about 80 cents for every dollar a man takes home.

One solution might be to require companies to provide more information on how much they pay their employees. A push on Beacon Hill would mandate a greater level of wage transparency.

“The pandemic has revealed, as it has with a lot of issues, some of the issues with our workforce and our workforce policies and inequities that are built-in,” said Representative Josh Cutler, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.

Several bills are under consideration by the committee that would provide workers with more information about what companies pay their employees.

Cutler sponsored a bill that would require any firm with 50 or more employees “to disclose the pay range, not the salary, but the pay range for a given position upon request from either an applicant or a current employee.”

Another bill would go further.

Companies would collect and publicize demographic data as well as payroll information. They’d also be required to release profiles of the 10 highest earners in a company.

Cutler says the recent case regarding the compensation of the US Women’s Soccer Team as compared to the men’s team shows why data like this is important. “That was a discussion about the pay ranges for women and men for the same kind of position and the reason we were able to have that discussion is because we knew what the pay range was.”

Workers in Boston told Boston 25 News they like the idea of wage transparency.

One woman said it would be helpful during the interview process.

“To know what you’re getting into, and to be able to negotiate it, instead of getting to the third round and saying, oh I can’t feed my family on that,” she said.

One man thought it would be good “especially when it comes to equality, the equality of men and women, especially if they’re doing the same job.”

Another man added, “It’s good for people to know this information, it’s good for them.”

Legislations can play a role in leveling the playing field, but Elaine Varelas, the Managing Director at Boston-based Keystone Partners said real change will happen when companies fully embrace the concept of equal pay.

“I do think there have been businesses that have led the way. They have women on their boards. That’s the start of equal wage access,” explained Varelas. “Pushing organizations to have equity at the top will help them have equity throughout the entire organization.”

Varelas believes change will come as businesses see this approach help their bottom line, by reducing turnover for example. She cautions that Pandora’s Box could open in the short term, however.

“When employees really see that people sitting next to them, who are a different gender or a different color, are making different money for identical roles, there will be backlash,” she said.

One female worker on Boylston Street told us that’s OK.

“I think we’re in a pivotal season right now, that women are empowered to be a voice of what their worth is,” she said.

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