Wage gap bill raises Central Mass. eyebrows

Susan Mailman, president and CEO of Coghlin Electrical Contractors in Worcester said paying men and women equally is important, although the bill proposed to help remedy the situation is flawed.

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By Emily Micucci

Central Massachusetts business leaders say they would never stand in the way of equal wages for men and women, but they're not about to stick their necks out in support of a proposed state law that's meant to achieve that goal.

“This is not a good bill,” said Susan Mailman, president and CEO of Coghlin Electrical Contractors Inc. in Worcester.

Mailman doesn't deny that a wage gap exists and should be remedied. The sticking point for her and other regional business leaders is the language requiring companies to lay out criteria for what makes two jobs alike in order to establish standards for fair pay. She described it as conceptually misguided.

“There is too much trying to place unlike jobs in similar basket … and that's not the reality of the market,” Mailman said.

U.S. Census figures say women earned 82 percent of what men earned in Massachusetts in 2014. A bill that will go before the Senate for a possible vote on Jan. 28 – called the Act to Establish Pay Equity – seeks to close that divide, and proponents say it also would close the wage gap for ethnic minorities, though specific language addressing minorities isn't included.

The bill seeks to amend an existing state law requiring men and women earn the same pay for equal work by specifically laying out criteria for what makes two jobs alike. It bans employers from punishing workers for discussing wages and requires employers to include minimum salaries in a job posting.

Under the state law, which is 70 years old, men and women must be paid the same for work that is similar, allowing for differences in seniority. The new bill defines positions as comparable if they “entail comparable skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions between employees of the opposite gender.”

The bill has backing from lawmakers as well as other state officials, including Attorney General Maura Healey.

New teeth for old laws?

In addition to state laws, equal pay is covered by federal anti-discrimination laws, which have also been in place for decades. Corey Higgins, an attorney with Worcester law firm Mirick O'Connell, said what's being proposed is in keeping with what's on the books at the state and federal levels, except for the requirements for defining comparable positions, as well as requiring companies to post minimum salary information in job ads.

Higgins said while many people believe they could be penalized for discussing salaries with co-workers, employers are banned from doing so under existing law.

“I don't view any of the proposed bills [including the House and Senate versions] as reinventing the wheel,” Higgins said.

Higgins, who works in Mirick's labor, employment and employee benefits group, said the proposed bill does give some more teeth to the laws designed to assure equal pay for men and women. He said noncompliance would be considered a discriminatory act under state law, and that employers would not be able to solicit salary history from job candidates, a common practice.

Higgins said he thinks many employers would be generally accepting of the requirements of the new law, since it's so similar to existing laws.

Like Mailman, others expect more pushback.

Small business burden

Stuart Loosemore, an attorney and director of government affairs and public policy at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said while the chamber hasn't taken a formal position on the bill, there are concerns that it may strip these decisions about employee qualifications away from employers, as they try to set guidelines for defining comparable work.

For example, Loosemore wondered if a female janitor and a male cafeteria worker should be on the same pay scale, or whether a chief financial officer should be paid on the same scale as an in-house attorney. It may be particularly difficult for small businesses without robust human resource expertise to make those decisions, he said.

“We don't want to see anything that's going to add undue burden to small- and medium-size business,“ Loosemore said.

He wondered if requiring businesses to post minimum salary information – ostensibly to set a floor so that women will not undervalue themselves when applying for jobs – removes autonomy from businesses.

AIM: Market demands equal pay

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), the state's largest employer association, has taken it a step further and formally opposed the Act to Establish Pay equity. Christopher Geehern, executive vice president of marketing and communications at AIM, said enforcement of existing state and federal laws should be reviewed before the state passes a new one.

Meanwhile, Geehern said the pressure to find skilled and educated workers needed to help companies grow should prompt businesses to offer competitive wages to all workers. AIM's long-term economic plan for the Bay State found this problem is the one that most businesses consider the most important as they look to grow.

“In that kind of a labor market where skills are at such a premium, any employer who doesn't believe in pay equity and gender equity, frankly, isn't going to be in business very long,” Geehern said.