Tuesday, August 2, 2016 
 
 On July 23, 2016, the Massachusetts legislature unanimously passed a comprehensive pay equality bill aimed at eradicating gender-based pay discrimination. The governor of Massachusetts signed the bill on August 1, 2016, but the law will not go into effect until July 1, 2018. 
 
 The law requires that employers pay men and women equally when their work is “comparable,” i.e., when the work is “substantially similar” in skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. This is a broader standard than most states’ equal pay acts, which require proof of identical work for equal pay requirements to apply. The law also bans salary secrecy, the practice of preventing employees from discussing their pay or benefits with one another. The rationale is that greater openness among employees regarding their wages will help employees identify pay disparity along gender and other prohibited lines. 
 
 To encourage employers to voluntarily remedy past wage disparities, the law incorporates a three-year defense from liability for companies attempting to internally correct gender-based compensation disparities. During those three years, employers must complete a self-evaluation of their pay practices and demonstrate reasonable progress in eliminating pay disparities. If they do so, they are entitled to a rebuttable presumption that they have not engaged in gender discrimination. 
 
 One of the most unique features of the law is a first-in-the-nation law ban on employers’ soliciting candidates’ salary histories in the initial steps of the hiring process, a practice that critics claim can perpetuate discrimination against women. The rationale is that women earn less on average than their male counterparts, and their depressed historical earnings can then factor into the wages offered to them by subsequent employers. Postponing a discussion of salary history until after a conditional offer including wages has been extended reduces the risk that past discrimination will be perpetuated. Voluntary disclosure of wage history remains permissible. 
 
 Although Massachusetts employers have nearly two years to prepare for the law, they are advised to review their job applications now and prepare to amend them to eliminate mandatory wage history disclosures. Hiring managers should be trained not to solicit this information during the screening or interview process, while human resources professionals should review personnel documents to ensure that company policies do not prohibit employees from discussing their wages and benefits. Finally, Massachusetts employers should take the opportunity to review and remedy pay discrimination during the “rebuttable presumption” window, and ensure that required notices are posted regarding employees’ rights under the new law. ||||| Get Boston Globe's Political Happy Hour newsletter , your afternoon shot of politics, sent straight from the desk of Joshua Miller. 
 
 Supporters watch Monday as Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signs the bill into law at the State House. —Elise Amendola / AP 
 
 BOSTON (AP) — Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law Monday a bill requiring men and women be paid equally for comparable work in Massachusetts — including what supporters say is a first-in-the nation provision barring employers from asking prospective workers to provide a salary history. 
 
 Baker signed the bill during a Statehouse ceremony. 
 
 Women are currently paid on average about 82 percent of what their male counterparts make for comparable work in Massachusetts. For black and Hispanic women, the pay gap is even wider. 
 
 Moments before signing the bill, Baker said the legislation will help ensure that in Massachusetts “people are paid what they are worth based only on what they are worth and not on something else.” 
 
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 The bill attempts to define what constitutes comparable work in part by outlining legitimate reasons for differences in pay — including seniority, geographic location, experience, education, training, or a system based on sales. 
 
 In particular, supporters hailed the provision in the law preventing employers from asking prospective workers to tell them how much they were getting paid at prior jobs. 
 
 Supporters say that since women have historically been paid less than men, the practice of asking for a salary history can help perpetuate a cycle of lower salaries for women. 
 
 The bill wouldn’t bar prospective employees from voluntarily offering information about their salary, however. 
 
 The law also lets employees discuss their salaries with other workers without facing retribution from their employer — a measure that could help workers discover pay inequities between men and women. 
 
 The Massachusetts House and Senate unanimously approved the legislation during a rare Saturday session last month sandwiched between the Republican and Democratic national conventions. 
 
 Democratic Sen. Karen Spilka of Ashland said Massachusetts has come a long way since it became the first state in the nation to approve a pay equity bill in 1945. 
 
 Spilka said the new law makes it clear that women working to support their families deserve fair pay and nothing less. 
 
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 The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Sen. Pat Jehlen of Somerville, also hailed the passage of the legislation. 
 
 “Today in Massachusetts, we can say that equal pay for equal work is not just a slogan. It’s the law,” she said. 
 
 But Jehlen also said that the work to ensure women are being paid fairly is not done. 
 
 Jehlen said that women working in jobs that have been traditionally filled by women — such as home care providers — are still not being paid enough to help support themselves and their families. 
 
 The new law also creates a three-year defense from liability to help encourage companies to correct compensation disparities between women and men internally before going to court. 
 
 During those three years, employers must complete a self-evaluation of their pay practices and demonstrate reasonable progress in eliminating pay disparities. 
 
 Employers would also be barred from reducing salaries to comply with the law. 
 
 The new law takes effect July 1, 2018.
– Massachusetts "just took a big step toward closing the wage gap" with "the strongest equal pay law in the country," as Mother Jones puts it. Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new law Monday ensuring employees can speak openly about their wages, helping to uncover pay gaps, and requiring equal pay for workers of "comparable character" or in "comparable operations," reports the New York Times. But the law, taking effect in July 2018, is also the first to bar employers from asking for an applicant's pay history before offering them a job, though applicants can still disclose that information if they choose. Employers will instead be required to present a pay figure upfront. Supporters say the move will benefit women, who are paid 82 cents for every dollar men earn for comparable work in the state, reports Boston.com. As companies often set salaries based on an employee's previous wage, "these are things that don't just affect one job; it keeps women's wages down over their entire lifetime," says State Sen. Pat Jehlen, a Democrat who sponsored the bipartisan bill. But the law "will help every single individual who applies for a job, not just women," says the chairwoman of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. "This is a sea change, and we hope it will be used as a model in other states." In case of breaches, workers will be able to file a claim within three years. However, companies who work to fix pay gaps will benefit from "a three-year defense from liability," reports the National Law Review. Differences in pay will still be allowed based on seniority, geographic location, experience, education, training, or a commission-based system.