Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | February 17, 2020 | wbjournal.com Massachusetts legislators are looking to follow the lead set by California and Europe in mandating public companies put women on their boards Legislating CHANGE PHOTO/STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor I n 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to make same-sex marriage legal. It was the first to pass an equal pay law between genders in 2016, and the first to ban flavored tobacco last year. Massachusetts legislators are now looking for enough support for another progressive law: one to force public com- panies to add at least one woman to their boards of directors. One bill filed last year by Sen. Jason Lewis (D-Winchester), would require any public company headquartered in Mass. to have at least one female board member by the end of 2021. Two years from then, boards would be required to have two women if they have five or fewer seats, or three if the board has six or more seats. Violations would reach as high as $100,000. Other bills have attempted to chip away at the issue in similar ways. One, filed by Rep. Patricia Haddad (D-Somerset), would require appointed state boards and commissions to have both gender and racial and ethnic diver- sity among their members. One gender couldn't have more than twice the number of members as the other. Another, filed by Rep. Liz Malia (D-Bos- ton), would require any company with 100 or more employees to file a report each year detailing race and gen- der ratios of those in senior ranks. In its annual e Boardroom Gap in- vestigation into gender diversity among the leadership at 75 prominent Central Massachusetts business organizations, WBJ found female representation was lacking, as women fill 34% of executive ranks and board of director positions. At the 16 Central Massachusetts pub- lic companies, women comprised 24% of board members. Pushing the issue forward Lewis filed the public company bill because he said companies haven't made nearly enough progress on their own in broadening their leadership. "I wish it wasn't necessary to legislate greater diversity in positions of lead- ership in Massachusetts," Lewis said. "Overall, we're nowhere near where we need to be." Massachusetts has already taken small steps on the issue. State Sen. Karen Spilka (D-Ashland), now the Senate president, filed a non-binding resolution in 2015 urging firms to have at least two female board members and report progress annually. More tangibly, in 2018, Massachusetts became the first state to prohibit em- ployers from requesting salary histories from potential hirees, a law aimed at curbing the gender pay gap. is Equal Pay Law bars employers from asking job candidates about their pay history, in an attempt to cut down the pay gap. So far, the bills on public companies and public boards have advanced out of the State Administration and Regulato- ry Oversight committee but haven't yet advanced to a full vote. The Boardroom Gap FIRST IN A 3-PART SERIES F O C U S W O M E N I N L E A D E R S H I P State Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) and Sen. Jason Lewis (D-Winchester) have been most outspoken on Beacon Hill in advocating for greater gender diversity on public company boards.

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