Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal • January 18, 2016 www.wbjournal.com C entral Massachusetts business leaders say they would never stand in the way of equal wages for men and women, but they're not about to stick their necks out in support of a proposed state law that's meant to achieve that goal. "This is not a good bill," said Susan Mailman, president and CEO of Coghlin Electrical Contractors Inc. in Worcester. Mailman doesn't deny that a wage gap exists and should be remedied. The sticking point for her and other regional business leaders is the language requir- ing companies to lay out criteria for what makes two jobs alike in order to establish standards for fair pay. She described it as conceptually misguided. "There is too much trying to place unlike jobs in similar basket … and that's not the reality of the market," Mailman said. U.S. Census figures say women earned 82 percent of what men earned in Massachusetts in 2014. A bill that will go before the Senate for a possible vote on Jan. 28 – called the Act to Establish Pay Equity – seeks to close that divide, and proponents say it also would close the wage gap for ethnic minorities, though specific language addressing minorities isn't included. The bill seeks to amend an existing state law requiring men and women earn the same pay for equal work by specifically laying out criteria for what makes two jobs alike. It bans employers from punishing workers for discussing wages and requires employers to include minimum salaries in a job posting. Under the state law, which is 70 years old, men and women must be paid the same for work that is similar, allowing for differences in seniority. The new bill defines positions as comparable if they "entail comparable skill, effort, responsi- bility and working conditions between employees of the opposite gender." The bill has backing from lawmakers as well as other state officials, including Attorney General Maura Healey. New teeth for old laws? In addition to state laws, equal pay is covered by federal anti-discrimination laws, which have also been in place for decades. Corey Higgins, an attorney with Worcester law firm Mirick O'Connell, said what's being proposed is in keeping with what's on the books at the state and federal levels, except for the requirements for defining comparable positions, as well as requiring companies to post minimum salary information in job ads. Higgins said while many people believe they could be penalized for dis- cussing salaries with co-workers, employers are banned from doing so under existing law. "I don't view any of the proposed bills [including the House and Senate ver- sions] as reinventing the wheel," Higgins said. Higgins, who works in Mirick's labor, Wage gap bill raises Central Mass. eyebrows BY EMILY MICUCCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Apps not always the best mobile solution A s mobile phones and tablets start to become the Internet device of choice, Central Massachusetts businesses are finding new ways to reach their customers and realizing there are more options than apps. At FedWell Pet Foods in Sudbury, owner Emily Lagasse has found traction using social networking sites. She uses Instagram to share photos and videos of her all-natural dog foods, stores where they're sold, and even behind the scenes looks at the healthy foods and care prod- ucts she makes for her African dog, Fenway. Most of her social media trac- tion comes from Facebook, she said. "A lot of the stuff I post to Instagram, I'll share on Facebook as well," Lagasse said. "It's so great because it's very pic- ture-based and people like posting pic- tures with dogs. We can get pictures of really great dogs doing cute things, lots of pictures of dogs, lots of pictures of milestones we reach, stores we're in, things we're a part of." Though her website gets a lot of mobile orders, an app for Fedwell isn't on the horizon, Lagasse said. "Our website is mobile-friendly, and going in through the website, I can see people are using their phones [to order]," she said. "I don't know what people would use [an app] for." The move for businesses to become more mobile-friendly has been ongoing since the iPhone was launched in 2007, but the pressure became all the more important in April when Google started giving preferential treatment to websites that were mobile-friendly. While the onus under the iPhone regime kicked off the need for firms to develop apps, the new change with Google meant mobile- friendly websites were the new barome- ter in a company's tech savviness. Have a purpose Apps can be an asset to a business, but they need to be created with a purpose, said Chris Tieri, president of Sturbridge marketing firm Idea Agency. "If you are truly delivering a unique customer experience not found else- where and is particular only to your business, then go for it. But do it prop- erly with purpose and strategy as well as [user interface design/user experience design] and impeccable design in your planning," Tieri said. According to a study of 350 small business owners by Washington, D.C. research firm Clutch, 15 percent of respondents said their business had its own mobile app, a third of which were made in 2014. Clutch found while 18 percent of the small businesses it surveyed planned on developing an app in the future, 40 per- cent said no and 27 percent said they were uncertain. Two years ago, Sheldon's Harley- Davidson in Auburn's advertising agent came to the dealership with the idea for a mobile app. Many large Harley- Davidson branches have their own app, said Chad Clark, the branch's dealer operator, and Sheldon's decided to launch its own to set itself apart from other dealerships and local businesses. The free app has event listings, as well as a forum to send emails directly to management. "In order to compete in today's retail environment, a business has to continue to change and adapt in order to get their message to the consumer," Clark said. A small business has a lot to gain by making its website more mobile-friend- ly, and a lot to lose by ignoring mobile. According to a 2014 study by Google, 70 percent of the 1,000 consumers surveyed said they use a smartphone to search for businesses. That's almost as much as laptops or notebooks (75 percent) and more than desktop personal computers (64 percent). Reach the mobile crowd Since so many people use their phones as their primary Internet device, busi- nesses with consumer bases have to cater to that, said Lori Allen, program manager at the Center for Women and Enterprise, a Worcester entrepreneur- ship advisory firm for women. "If I'm out running errands and get hungry, but I have a food allergy and can't download your restaurant's menu to see if you have options for me, I'm going to very quickly move on to anoth- er restaurant. Likewise, if your address is buried in your website somewhere, or I can't easily click to get my phone to map directions there, I'm going to give up and move on quickly," she said. BY LAURA FINALDI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Susan Mailman, president and CEO of Coghlin Electrical Contractors in Worcester said paying men and women equally is important, although the bill proposed to help remedy the situation is flawed. Sheldon's Harley-Davidson in Auburn launched a mobile app two years ago to set itself apart from other Harley dealerships and local businesses. P H O T O / M A T T V O L P I N I P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y

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