Massachusetts lawmakers have hailed the state's new Equal Pay Act. But when it comes to their own employees, equity may still be a ways away.
Katie Lannan, State House News Service: There have been concerns for a while now about the way this new pay equity law — which is intended to close the pay gap between genders — has been rolled out, particularly in the state Senate.
Some of the staffers feel like they haven't been involved in the discussions around restructuring. They feel as though there are some inequities and they're not really sure what's happened or why it's worked out the way it has, despite what the Senate president's office said has been efforts to communicate.
Carrie Healy, NEPR: They have not exempted themselves from pay equity, so Senate staffers should be treated just like any other employee in the state in terms of this?
That's right. Yeah. The legislature, as an employer, is covered under this law. And interestingly, it underscores some of the difficulties in implementing this law. They've found there that whereas the pay system for senators' staff used to be kind of decentralized, now it's more centralized and they're finding that anytime...salary changes are going to happen, there's going to be some concerns, because no one wants to earn less and no one wants to really see dramatic changes without understanding them.
And then the other interesting wrinkle here is everyone's pay is publicly available in a database. It's all a public record, so people know exactly what their colleagues are making.
A bill filed by state Rep. Paul McMurtry could provide a lifeline for local cable access TV stations. An FCC ruling a couple of weeks ago allows cable companies to keep some of the money they were supposed to be providing to cable access TV. What does McMurtry's bill do, and can it come fast enough for these stations?
That's a great question. Rep. McMurtry's bill is pretty interesting. It reminds me in a way of the way the state has approached things like Uber and Airbnb, to respond to the way technologies are changing our lives.
His bill would impose a fee on streaming providers like Netflix and Hulu, based on 5% of the revenue they earn in Massachusetts. And the money collected there would be split between the state, the cities and towns, and local access cable stations.
Now to the second part of your question, whether or not that can come quickly enough -- that's a tough one to say. You don't know how quickly you would need it. And the legislature right now is on [its] informal summer recess, where they're not doing formal lawmaking sessions. But they...are still meeting and we are seeing bills advance. So it's something that could move if they want to get it through.
Following the discovery of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles' failure to suspend licenses on drivers charged in other states, lawmakers had some tough questions for officials. At the same time, an auditing and accounting firm has been investigating. Where are we on this?
We are still, right now, in the waiting stage. We're waiting to see that outside audit you mentioned, from the firm Grant Thornton, that could be out this week. There was some talk about an early August...release of that. And lawmakers are still asking for more information from the administration, and have suggested they might seek subpoena power in order to get what they're looking for.
