Massachusetts
These 9 new laws go into effect in Mass. in 2025. Here's what they all are
With the new year comes new laws that are set to take effect in Massachusetts in 2025.
Five bills were signed into law with set dates for when the new laws, signed by Gov. Maura Healey, go into effect.
Four other new laws were part of a large economic development bill Healey signed in November, covering a wide range of issues from clean energy to education. The text of this law contained an emergency preamble, which gives the governor authority to determine whether a new law should go into effect immediately.
Here are the latest changes made to Massachusetts state law.
Employers must show salary ranges in job postings
Beginning Oct. 29, 2025, Massachusetts employers with 25 or more employees must disclose salary ranges and protect an employee’s right to ask for salary ranges. This received Healey’s approval on July 31 when Healey signed the Francis Perkins Workplace Equity Act, named after the first woman to be Secretary of Labor under President Franklin Roosevelt.
The new law also prohibits employers from firing or retaliating against any employee or applicant who asks for salary ranges when applying for a job or promotion, according to state law.
Employers’ demographic wage data
Along with salary ranges, Massachusetts employers with at least 100 state-based employees must file an annual report to the state, according to the legal firm Cooley. This annual report includes workforce demographic and pay data categorized by race, ethnicity, sex, and position.
This goes into effect on Feb. 1, 2025, with the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development then publishing aggregated data in a report on its website on July 1 of each year.
Massachusetts joins 11 other states in enacting this law: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island and Washington.
Sealing eviction records
Healey signed the Affordable Homes Act on Aug. 6. Going into effect on May 5, 2025, this law allows tenants to petition the courts to seal certain eviction records that can make it difficult for renters to secure housing, according to the state’s website.
The law will also make it illegal for a consumer reporting agency to include a sealed eviction record in its reports.
Parentage equality expansions
In August, Healey signed into law an act that updates the state’s parentage laws for the first time in 40 years, according to the Governor’s Office. The Massachusetts Parentage Act provides protections for parents who use surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization and assisted reproduction, as well as for LGBTQ+ parents.
The bill also modernizes the law’s language to be more inclusive, replacing words like “paternity” for “parentage” and “child born out of wedlock” for “nonmarital child,” Healey’s office said.
“Our laws need to reflect the realities of modern families and the loving environments where children grow and flourish,” Healey said in an Aug. 9 statement. “This moment is a victory for all families in Massachusetts who deserve to be treated with dignity and to have their rights recognized and protected under the law.”
This law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Updates to paid family and medical leave
On Oct. 1, the Department of Family and Medical Leave announced it would update weekly benefits for paid family and medical leave in Massachusetts. The maximum weekly benefits that employees can receive are set to increase from $1,149.90 to $1,170.64 per week, according to the legal firm Fisher Phillips.
The overall paid family and medical leave contribution rate will stay at 0.88% for eligible employees working at a business with 25 employees or more, the legal firm Seyfarth said in a statement. The contribution rate for smaller employers will remain at 0.46%.
Changes go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Economic development for climate tech, AI and natural gas
Healey signed an economic development bill called the Mass Leads Act on Nov. 20. Its goal is to promote the development and use of clean energy across the state, with improvements to energy affordability, expand access to electric vehicles, and “facilitate the application of artificial intelligence across the state’s ecosystem‚“ Healey’s office said in a statement.
“This legislation will create new jobs, strengthen our efforts to recruit and retain the best talent, support all of our communities, and grow our arts, culture and tourism sectors,” the administration said in its statement.
The new law supports initiatives that aim to make Massachusetts a hub for climate technology, Healey’s office said. This includes $400 million in capital resources going to the offshore wind industry and establishing a new climate tech incentive program to bring and keep climate tech companies in Massachusetts. It will also update the existing Offshore Wind Tax Incentive Program.
The sweeping bill also includes provisions to overhaul the state’s permitting process for Massachusetts to build more renewable energy infrastructure to meet its climate goals. WBUR reported that these changes are intended to go into effect by March 2026.
The law also authorizes $100 million to be used to create the Massachusetts AI Hub “to facilitate the application of artificial intelligence across the state’s ecosystem,” the statement read. Healey’s office added that this hub is expected to boost innovation and “attract AI talent” to the state.
Additionally (but not lastly), the law establishes new provisions for natural gas. More networked geothermal projects, like Eversource in Framingham, will be built in order to bring cleaner forms of heating and cooling, WBUR reported.
The law also changes how gas utilities are incentivized to replace leaky underground pipes, with the state now prioritizing short-term repairs or retiring segments of a pipeline.
Due to the emergency preamble written into the Mass Leads Act, the law immediately went into effect with Healey’s signature.
More funding for electric vehicle incentives
The Mass Leads Act also introduced new provisions for electric vehicles, including an extension of state funding for its electric vehicle incentive program until 2027, WBUR wrote.
The Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles, or MOR-EV, program is intended to cut down on air pollution and greenhouse gases.
The program offers rebates for buying or leasing eligible battery electric vehicles and fuel-cell electric vehicles.
Another provision includes directing the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to review laws that ban the sale of new gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles after 2035, WBUR reported.
As part of the Mass Leads Act, these parts of the law also immediately went into effect upon the bill’s signing.
Nurses can work across state lines
The passage of the Mass Leads Act also addressed the nursing shortage in Massachusetts. The bill included a measure to join the Nurse Licensure Compact, which allows nurses operating in other states affiliated with the compact to practice out of state via in-person or telehealth, GBH reported in November.
Massachusetts became the last New England state to join the compact.
“Compact membership will also enhance the ability of the Massachusetts health care system to prepare for pandemics, emergencies and other staffing needs and to facilitate telehealth and other care delivery transformations in the future,” Mickey O’Neill, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, told GBH.
This also went into effect immediately after Healey signed the Mass Leads Act.
Educator diversity
Another facet of the economic development bill that Healey signed focused on education. The new law incorporated a bill known as the Massachusetts Teachers Association-supported Educator Diversity Act.
This change will see the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education develop an alternative certification process for teachers who may have challenges with the educator certification exam, but can still demonstrate their capabilities as teachers, Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka said in a statement in November.
Because educator diversity was part of the Mass Leads Act, it immediately went into effect with Healey’s signature on Nov. 20.
Twenty-eight lawmakers dissented Wednesday as the Massachusetts House voted to set new terms around what state Auditor Diana DiZoglio would be able to review in the legislative audit voters authorized her to carry out in 2024.
Almost all House Democrats voted for the measure, which also proposes to make more state government records accessible to the public. Three Democrats — Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly, Attleboro Rep. Jim Hawkins and Fall River Rep. Alan Silvia — joined the body’s 25 Republicans in voting no.
Speaker Ron Mariano said the bill responds to an ongoing call from voters for more transparency out of Beacon Hill and provides a path forward in lieu of a what he called “politically motivated audit conducted in violation of the Constitution.”
Leaders of the House and Senate have resisted DiZoglio’s audit push, arguing that a probe by the auditor’s office would run afoul of the separation of powers laid out in the state Constitution, bringing the legislative branch under the review of a piece of the executive branch.
“We are not accountable to any constitutional officer,” said Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat. “We are only accountable to our constituents.”
Taunton Rep. Lisa Field, a Democrat in her first term, said she was among the 72% of Massachusetts voters who backed the audit ballot question in 2024.
“Due to legitimate concerns and questions about constitutional privileges and separation of powers, we have been stuck on this audit issue for more than a year,” Field said. “Let’s not be like Washington, D.C. and accept such gridlock — not about the audit and not about public records. Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good progress.”
The House’s bill would authorize DiZoglio to review what it defines as the “administrative functions” of the Legislature, going back to the 2021 fiscal year. Those areas include the adoption of annual budgets, official audits of the House and Senate by independent firms, spending by both chambers, and the execution of any financial settlements with lawmakers and employees.
It would also newly apply the state’s public records law to the governor’s office, and create a process by which people could request and receive certain legislative files.
Massachusetts is currently the only state where the Legislature, governor and judiciary all claim to be exempt from the public records law.
Warren Republican Rep. Todd Smola described the process that led up to Wednesday’s vote as opaque in and of itself. Mariano last week said the House would take up what he called comprehensive transparency legislation, but did not say when or what, specifically, the bill would do.
The bill was circulated to members of the House Ways and Means Committee around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and committee members had a little over a half hour to vote on whether to advance it. Smola, the ranking Republican on the committee, said during that 34-minute window, “we had members on both sides of the political aisle that were calling each other back and forth to say, ‘Can you explain this portion to me?’”
“We are so much better than the process that has unfolded,” he said. “And for the sake of people that are asking us for transparency, that is not transparency. That’s the opposite of transparency.”
Rep. Michael Soter, a Bellingham Republican, said he was particularly concerned with a part of the bill that removes the courts from settling disputes between the auditor and the Legislature.
He said that by setting its own rules around an audit, the House would be “ensuring the auditor can only see exactly what we allow her to see and nothing more.”
It’s not clear yet if the Senate will pass the bill. Last week, state senators voted to turn over a limited set of documents to DiZoglio. The documents the Senate plans to provide mirror the records she would be allowed to review under the House bill.
Asked if he expected the Senate to agree to the legislation, Mariano on Tuesday said only, “I talked to the Senate.”
BOSTON, MA — An international restaurant group with locations across the globe is preparing to open its first Massachusetts restaurant this year.
LPM Restaurant & Bar, a French Riviera-inspired restaurant founded in London, is set to open on the second floor of the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street in Back Bay, according to Four Seasons. The hotel lists the restaurant as “Opening Summer 2026,” while the Boston Business Journal reported the restaurant plans to open in September.
The Boston restaurant will mark LPM’s debut in the Northeast and its third U.S. outpost, following locations in Miami and Las Vegas, according to a Four Seasons announcement.
LPM, also known as La Petite Maison, was founded in London in 2007 and is known for French-Mediterranean food, Mediterranean ingredients and dining rooms influenced by Belle Époque design.
The business operates locations in London, Dubai, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Riyadh, Limassol, Doha, Mykonos, Kuwait, Boston, Maldives and Bangkok.
Four Seasons said LPM will take over the space that formerly housed One Dalton’s breakfast concept, One + One. The restaurant will join other dining options at the hotel, including Zuma and Trifecta.
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Massachusetts
Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer
A Massachusetts high school is under investigation after “several” teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions.
The state Department of Public Health is set to visit Uxbridge High School on Thursday to “conduct a series of air quality tests,” to determine whether the multiple cases are potentially connected.
Superintendent David Ljungberg and Principal Michael Rubin alerted families and district staff on Monday of the “sombering news,” after Uxbridge High School’s graduation over the weekend.
“We are writing to inform you about a concern we are investigating at Uxbridge High School,” Ljungberg and Rubin stated in the letter. “Several female teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions over the past few years.”
“It is, of course, possible that these multiple cases are not connected to one another,” the leaders added, “but out of abundance of caution, we are looking into any environmental factors at the school that may be a factor in their diagnoses.”
The 123,000-square-foot school, with an enrollment of roughly 600, was constructed in 2012 at a cost of $45 million, including a $22-million state reimbursement.
Uxbridge school leaders say they notified the state Department of Health and local health board as soon as they became aware of the cases, seeking “counsel about how best to proceed.”
“Massachusetts DPH officials have indicated that there is no evidence of immediate danger in the building and no reason to limit access to or use of the facility at this time,” they wrote in their letter. “In fact, the public health officials have commended our decision to approach them with these concerns, our readiness to partner with them in support of the evaluation process.”
Health officials are assessing the school’s interior and exterior to “ensure there are no issues with the infrastructure that would present risks (including electrical, plumbing, mechanical, HVAC, and other systems)” and the indoor and outdoor air quality on campus.
The superintendent and principal said that state officials have ruled out water supply as a “risk factor” after “thorough testing.”
“The team has reached out to the women who have been diagnosed, requesting data to evaluate whether there may be a connection among their cases,” Ljungberg and Rubin wrote. “We are grateful for their cooperation.”
They added that the state has said discovering an environmental “smoking gun” is “rare” in workplace investigations.
“However, even if a direct causal link is not established,” the leaders wrote, “the administration is utilizing this process to rigorously test the building and guarantee that it meets all safety standards moving forward.”
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