The Employment Law Counselor

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (“MCAD” or “Commission”) has released its Fiscal Year 2025 (“FY25”) Annual Report, covering July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025. The report reflects a year of transition for the agency, including leadership stabilization, structural reforms, increased outreach and continued progress toward replacing its case‑management system. For employers, the report offers important insight into filing trends, backlog conditions, investigative outcomes and adjudicatory activity over the past year.

Complaints Filed in ... Continue Reading

Pennsylvania has joined a growing number of states and localities in enacting legislation aimed at eliminating hair-based discrimination; the new law is effective January 24, 2026. Governor Josh Shapiro signed the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair “CROWN” Act into law in November 2025. This law protects individuals from discrimination in the workplace based on natural hair textures and protective hairstyles, such as locs, braids, twists, coils, bantu knots, afros and extensions. The legislation likewise prohibits discrimination related to religious ... Continue Reading

Beginning on October 29, 2025, employers will have to comply with new disclosure obligations set forth in the Massachusetts Pay Transparency Law. Like similar pay transparency laws that have gone into effect in other states, the Massachusetts law requires Massachusetts employers of 25 or more employees to disclose wage ranges in job postings to applicants. This includes positions that can be performed remotely by an employee assigned to a Massachusetts worksite, as well as positions that can be performed by remote workers whose primary place of work is within Massachusetts. In ... Continue Reading

On October 22, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) issued an important decision clarifying the distinction between “wages” which are subject to the protections of the Massachusetts Wage Act and other forms of compensation such as bonuses. In Nunez v. Syncsort Incorporated, et al., the former employee claimed that the employer violated the Wage Act by paying the second half of his retention bonus eight days after his date of termination. Per the Wage Act, all wages must be paid to an involuntarily terminated employee on the date of termination. The ... Continue Reading

This episode of The Employment Law Counselor podcast, in collaboration with the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS), dives into recent executive orders which end Federal DEI programs and, among other things, encourage private sector employees to end “illegal DEI” programs. Victoria Fuller, Partner and Co-Chair of Labor and Employment Practice Group, and Laura Corvo, Counsel, are joined by Marlena Ellis, Associate, to discuss the implications of those executive orders on employers and offer some best practices employers should implement promptly to ... Continue Reading