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Last updated on: December 22nd, 2022
Hours & Pay Regulations
Normal Working Hours
Reporting Pay
When an employee who is scheduled to work 3 or more hours reports for duty at the time set by the employer, and that employee is not provided with the expected hours of work, the employee shall be paid for at least 3 hours on such day at no less than the basic minimum wage.
On-call Time
All on-call time is compensable working time unless the employee is not required to be at the worksite or another location, and is effectively free to use his or her time for his or her own purposes.
Sleeping Time and Working Shifts
An employee required to be on duty at the work site for less than 24 hours is working even if the employee is permitted to sleep or engage in other personal activities when not busy.
Travel Time
Ordinary travel between home and work is not compensable working time. If an employee who regularly works at a fixed location is required to report to a location other than his or her regular worksite, the employee shall be compensated for all travel time in excess of his or her ordinary travel time between home and work and shall be reimbursed for associated transportation expenses.
If an employer requires an employee to report to a location other than the worksite or to report to a specified location to take transportation, compensable work time begins at the reporting time and includes subsequent travel to and from the worksite.
An employee required or directed to travel from one place to another after the beginning of or before the close of the workday shall be compensated for all travel time and shall be reimbursed for all transportation expenses.
Overtime
Under state law, most employers are required to pay nonexempt employees 1.5 times their regular rates of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a week.
Breaks
Employees working more than 6 hours get a meal break. Workers have a right to at least a 30-minute meal break for every 6 hours worked in a calendar day. During their meal break, workers must be free of all duties and free to leave the workplace. This break may be unpaid. Employers may require workers to take their meal breaks. Employees may agree to work through their meal breaks, but they must be paid. Meal breaks may be used for prayer or other activities.
Where an employee is required to be on duty at the work site for 24 hours or more, the employer and employee may agree in writing prior to performance of the work to exclude bona fide meal periods and a bona fide regularly scheduled sleeping period of not more than eight hours from working time, provided the employer provides adequate sleeping quarters and the employee can enjoy an uninterrupted period of sleep. If no prior written agreement is made, sleeping time and meal time will constitute compensable working time.
Day of rest
Most employers must allow a worker to have one day off after 6 consecutive days of work. This day off must include an unbroken period between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Breast Feeding Break
Effective April 1, 2018, employers must provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and related conditions, including lactation and the need to express breast milk. Breaks may either be paid or unpaid under the law. However, if the employer does provide paid breaks to employees, the employer must allow the employee to use those paid breaks to breastfeed or express breast milk. Guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health suggests that breaks may typically last approximately 15 to 20 minutes, plus additional time to get to and from the break room and set up and break down equipment.
For an employer to deny a reasonable accommodation for an employee’s pregnancy or any condition related to the employee’s pregnancy, including, but not limited to, lactation, or the need to express breast milk for a nursing child, if the employee so requests, unless the employer can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer’s program, enterprise or business.
Sunday Work
Retail Establishments
Retailers may open at any time on Sunday without the need for approval by the Department of Labor Standards, and without the need for a local police permit, except for retailers of alcoholic beverages, which may not open until 10 a.m. on Sunday.
Any retail establishment which operates on Sundays is subject to the following 2 restrictions:
Premium pay: Retailers that employ more than 7 people, including the owner, are required to compensate employees who work on Sundays, except for bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees, at a premium rate.
Sundays-Retail Establishments: Sunday Premium pay which is based on an employee’s “regular rate of pay” as of January 1, 2020, is 1.3 times the hourly rate.
Regardless of the number of employees, retailers cannot require employees to work on Sunday, and an employee’s refusal to work may not be grounds for discrimination, dismissal, discharge, reduction in hours, or any other penalty. Non-retail establishments Unless a non-retail business falls within one of the exemptions in M.G.L. c. 136, § 6, it is not allowed to operate on Sundays.
However, for all businesses, a permit for work on Sundays may be issued by the police chief of the city or town where the business is located. A permit may be issued only for “necessary work or labor which could not be performed on any other day without serious suffering, loss, damage, or public inconvenience, or which could not be performed on any other day without delay to military defense work.” M.G.L. c. 136, § 7. Additionally, pursuant to M.G.L. c. 149, § 51A, manufacturers may petition the Attorney General for a temporary exemption from the Sunday work restriction.
Public Holidays
Work may be performed without a permit. Premium pay and voluntariness of employment requirements do apply. Premium pay rates vary depending on the holiday. Retailers with more than 7 workers must pay premium rates as follows: Holiday Premium Pay for Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day: Effective January 1, 2020, 1.3 times hourly rate
Holiday Premium Pay for New Year’s Day, Columbus Day before 12 p.m. and Veterans Day before 1 p.m.: January 1, 2020, 1.5 times hourly rate.
Annual Leave
Vacation payments are wages. Employers who offer vacation should have clear, written vacation policies. They should give each worker a copy of the policy when the worker is hired and ask the worker to acknowledge in writing that the worker understands the policy.
Termination – Under the Massachusetts Wage Act, M.G.L. c. 149 § 150, a terminated employee is entitled to be paid all wages, including accrued vacation time, on the day of termination, and the failure to do so makes the employer liable for mandatory treble damages and attorneys’ fees, as the Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled in Reuter v. City of Methuen.
Minimum Wage
Effective January 1, 2023, Massachusetts’s hourly minimum wage is $15.00.
The above information on minimum wages might not be up to date & subject to change. Kindly access the DOL website for the current rates.
Special Leave
Employees who work for employers having eleven or more employees may earn and use up to 40 hours of paid sick time per the calendar year, while employees working for smaller employers may earn and use up to 40 hours of unpaid sick time per the calendar year. Earned sick time shall be provided by an employer for an employee to:
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- Care for the employee’s child, spouse, parent, or parent of a spouse, who is suffering from a physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care; or
- Care for the employee’s own physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care; or
- Attend the employee’s routine medical appointment or a routine medical appointment for the employee’s child, spouse, parent, or parents of spouse; or
- An employer shall provide a minimum of one hour of earned sick time for every thirty hours worked by an employee to address the psychological, physical or legal effects of domestic violence. Employees shall begin accruing earned sick time commencing with the date of hire of the employee or the date this law becomes effective, whichever is later, but employees shall not be entitled to use accrued earned sick time until the 90th calendar day following commencement of their employment. On and after this 90 day period, employees may use earned sick time as it accrues.
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An eligible employee who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a covered servicemember shall be entitled to a total of 26 workweeks of leave during a 12-month period to care for the service member. The leave described in this paragraph shall only be available during a single 12-month period.
Employers must grant paid leave to all regularly employed employees for jury service. An employer must pay an employee regular wages for the first three days of juror service unless a court excuses the employer from the duty to compensate because of extreme financial hardship.
Employers must allow employees to be late or absent from work if they are volunteer firefighters who responded to an emergency that occurred outside of the employees’ normal work hours. Certification requirements apply. Leave is unpaid.
In addition to USERRA, Massachusetts law provides the following job protections for military members: • Discrimination protections for all military members; and • Job protections for eligible veterans who wish to participate in Veteran’s Day or Memorial Day events. Employers with 50 or more employees must provide paid leave to veterans participating in Veteran’s Day activities (effective July 14, 2016). Employees must provide reasonable notice. Employers with fewer than 50 employees may provide leave paid or unpaid, at the employer’s discretion.
An employer must grant leave to an employee who is a victim of or witness to a crime and who is subpoenaed to testify in a criminal proceeding. Notice requirements apply.
An employer shall permit an employee to take up to 15 days of leave from work in any 12 month period if:
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- The employee, or a family member of the employee, is a victim of abusive behavior; or
- The employee is using the leave from work to seek or obtain medical attention, counseling, victim services or legal assistance, secure housing, obtain a protective order from a court, appear in court or before a grand jury, meet with a district attorney or other law enforcement official or attend child custody proceedings or address other issues directly related to the abusive behavior against the employee or family member of the employee.
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This leave applies to all parents, men, and women, whose employers have six or more employees. Under the law, parents are eligible for 8 weeks of leave per child. If both parents work for the same employer, they shall only be entitled to 8 weeks of leave in the aggregate for the birth or adoption of the same child. Leave may be with or without pay at the discretion of the employer.
An eligible employee shall be entitled to a total of 24 hours of leave during any 12 month period, in addition, to leave available under the federal act, to:
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- Participate in school activities directly related to the educational advancement of a son or daughter of the employee, such as parent-teacher conferences or interviewing for a new school;
- Accompany the son or daughter of the employee to routine medical or dental appointments, such as check-ups or vaccinations; and
- Accompany an elderly relative of the employee to routine medical or dental appointments or appointments for other professional services related to the elder’s care, such as interviewing at nursing or group homes. An eligible employee may elect, or an employer may require the employee, to substitute any of the accrued paid vacation leave, personal leave, or medical or sick leave of the employee for any of the leave provided under this section, but nothing in this section shall require an employer to provide paid sick leave or paid medical leave in any situation in which the employer would not normally provide any such paid leave. Leave under this section may be taken intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule.
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Veterans may be entitled to paid or unpaid leave from work on Veterans Day and Memorial Day.
Massachusetts laws require that employees who apply be granted a leave of absence to vote during the two hours after the polls open in their districts. Payment for voting time is at the discretion of the employer. Most employees have time to vote before or after work. One or two hours in most cases is the maximum time needed to vote. Employees should explain their reasons for needing more time and may also be requested to prove that they have voted by providing the name of the precinct where they cast their ballot.
PFML stands for Paid Family Medical Leave. It’s a state-offered benefit for anyone who works in Massachusetts and is eligible to take up to 26 weeks of paid leave for medical or family reasons. PFML is available to covered individuals who work in Massachusetts. PFML benefits will become available on January 1, 2021. Paid family leave may be taken to care for a sick family member, bond with a newborn child, bond with a child after adoption or foster care placement, manage family affairs when a family member is on active duty in the armed forces. Paid medical leave may be taken to manage a personal serious injury or illness
An employee of the commonwealth or of a county, or of a city or town, may take a paid leave of absence of not more than 30 days in a calendar year to serve as a solid organ donor. (§149:33E).
