Do job postings need a salary range in Massachusetts? (2026)

Who it applies to

Employers with 25 or more employees with a primary place of work in Massachusetts during the prior calendar year. The counting method is unusually precise and worth following exactly: calculate once per year, as an average across all payroll periods, by adding the number of employees on the payroll during each pay period and dividing by the number of pay periods. Full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary employees all count. Pay periods with nobody on payroll count as zero.

Out-of-state remote employees count toward the threshold only if their primary place of work is Massachusetts. An out-of-state employer is not automatically outside the law: what matters is whether 25 or more of its people have Massachusetts as their primary place of work. (Massachusetts AGO Pay Transparency FAQ, Q1 to Q4)

What has to be in the posting

The pay range, defined by statute as the annual salary range or hourly wage range the covered employer reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for that position at that time. The range may run from the lowest to the highest figure the employer honestly believes it would pay for the role. Where pay is piece-rate or commission-based, the piece rate or commission range the employer reasonably expects to pay must be in the posting. Massachusetts does not require a benefits description, which distinguishes it from Colorado and Illinois. (M.G.L. c.149 § 105F)

The posting duty travels with the recruiting method: a posting includes recruitment done directly by the employer and recruitment done indirectly through a third party.

Do remote jobs count

This is where Massachusetts differs from most of the states people group it with, and the difference is easy to get wrong. The test is primary place of work, not whether the role could be filled from inside the state. The AGO's guidance is that § 105F applies to all positions where the primary place of work is Massachusetts, which includes positions that can be performed remotely to a Massachusetts worksite and remote workers whose primary place of work is Massachusetts.

Compare Colorado, where a fully remote posting is covered merely because a Coloradan could do the job, even if the posting says Coloradans will not be considered. Massachusetts asks a different question. Anyone applying a single "remote means every state" rule across a careers site will over-apply it here and under-apply it in Colorado. (Massachusetts AGO Pay Transparency FAQ, Q5)

What happens if a posting is missing the range

The Attorney General has exclusive authority to enforce § 105F and may seek injunctive or declaratory relief. The penalty ladder is: a warning for a first offense, a fine of not more than $500 for a second, not more than $1,000 for a third, and exposure under M.G.L. c.149 § 27C for a fourth or subsequent offense. The statute defines an offense as one or more postings during a 48-hour period, so a batch of postings published together is one offense rather than many.

There is also a cure regime, and it is short. Until October 29, 2027, covered employers have two business days to cure defects on receipt of a Notice to Cure letter from the Attorney General's Office. Two business days is not enough time to audit a careers site from a standing start, which is the practical argument for knowing the state of your postings before a letter arrives rather than after. (Massachusetts AGO guidance)

How this shows up across job boards

Because a posting includes recruitment done indirectly through a third party, a range that is correct in your ATS but stripped in syndication is still your posting. The 48-hour offense definition cuts both ways here: a bulk publish that drops ranges across many roles at once is one offense, but a drip of individual postings over weeks is several. And the two-business-day cure window assumes you can find and fix the affected postings quickly, wherever they ended up.

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