Massachusetts has been making headlines lately for the innovative new legislation passed this summer. As any savvy business owner knows, keeping abreast of any new law passed is vital to staying relevant (and legal!).
Here are 5 tips to help you comply with the Equal Pay Act.
- Review the Law
The first step to staying in compliance is by doing your research. Your HR professionals will need to become as knowledgeable as possible on the contents and implications of the Equal Pay Act.
Reading the state’s material on the subject is necessary, certainly, but it may also be helpful to read commentary on the legislation. Check out this article for a simplified account of everything you need to know about the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act.
- Review Your Hiring Process
One of the first places you’ll want to make changes to your business operations in in your HR department, specifically in how you handle hiring.
The primary purpose of the Equal Pay Act is to ensure comparable pay for comparable work, which begins at the time of hiring. Your HR professionals should ensure that they audit hiring processes to do away with pay history queries and to ensure that offers for similar positions have equal salary offers.
- Review Your Employee Handbook
As important as it is that your HR staff is aware of the contents of the Equal Pay Act, it is also vital that all of your other employees understand their rights.
Review your employee handbook to ensure that it describes your employees’ rights under this new legislation and that it provides the appropriate resources should they feel that those rights have been violated.
- Review Your HR Department
With legislation as revolutionary as this, it could be the best time for a comprehensive review of your HR practices.
Don’t let this department fall to the wayside by completing a piecemeal review of payroll or interview operations alone. Take the time to review your HR department from the top down to check for anything inconsistent with new legislation.
- Seek an Objective Review
Even if your staff is highly skilled and follows the aforementioned tips to the letter, not having an objective view of your business operations could be highly detrimental to remaining in compliance. This is not to say that your employees are incapable of monitoring their practices, but it can be difficult for anyone to be fully aware of their own shortcomings. In a business, this can mean loss of revenue, lower productivity, or even a lawsuit.
The smartest way to protect against this is by outsourcing a review of your HR practices to ensure that they are compliant with the law.
Commonwealth Payroll and HR has a number of services – such as basic HR services – to help your organization check for any blind spots in your business practices that may lead to falling out of compliance.
To guarantee that your business always operates at top efficiency and in compliance with new legislation, call the HR experts at Commonwealth Payroll and HR at 877-245-1159.
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