Massachusetts triples unpaid wages — automatically, with no good-faith excuse for the employer. That makes it one of the best states in the country to bring a wage case. It also has a trap most websites never mention: the state's own overtime statute exempts hospitals, nursing homes, nonprofit colleges, restaurants and hotels. Knowing which statute your claim lives under is the whole ballgame. We represent employees. Not employers. Ever.
On an overtime claim the statute does not leave it to the judge: “An employee so aggrieved who prevails in such an action shall be awarded treble damages, as liquidated damages, for lost overtime compensation and shall also be awarded the costs of the litigation and reasonable attorneys' fees.” The same section adds that “[a]n agreement between the person and the employer to work for less than the overtime rate of compensation shall not be a defense to such action.”3 The Wage Act reads the same for unpaid wages generally: treble damages “for any lost wages and other benefits,” plus costs and fees.4 Whether the employer meant it is beside the point.
Chapter 151, section 1A lists twenty categories the state overtime requirement does not reach. Among them: employment “in a hospital, sanitorium, convalescent or nursing home, infirmary, rest home or charitable home for the aged”; “in a non-profit school or college”; “in a hotel, motel, motor court or like establishment”; “in a restaurant”; seasonal businesses running 120 days a year or less; and farm labor.5
This matters for healthcare and human services workers, because the Supreme Judicial Court held that where “the plaintiffs' sole claim for overtime wages rests on the FLSA, they are limited to the remedies provided under the FLSA.”6 Translated: a misclassified case manager at a Massachusetts hospital or nursing home generally cannot use the state overtime statute, cannot stack Massachusetts treble damages onto a federal overtime claim, and is looking at FLSA remedies instead. Anyone promising automatic triple damages without first asking who signs your paycheck is guessing.
That is not the end of it. Unpaid straight-time wages — off-the-clock work, shorted hours, withheld final pay — are still Wage Act claims under chapter 149, section 148, and those carry treble damages. So does misclassification. The job is finding the part of your claim that lives in state law.
Massachusetts is unusual here, and not in your favor. Section 1A says: “Sums paid as commissions, drawing accounts, bonuses, or other incentive pay based on sales or production, shall be excluded in computing the regular rate and the overtime rate of compensation under the provisions of this section.”1 Federal law is the opposite: nondiscretionary bonuses and production pay go into the FLSA regular rate. If you earn significant incentive pay, your overtime may be worth more federally — one more reason these cases are pleaded in both.
The statutory exemption is for “a bona fide executive, or administrative or professional person or qualified trainee for such position earning more than eighty dollars per week” — a figure Massachusetts has never updated.5 The state sets no modern salary floor of its own. The regulation imports the federal definitions instead: the terms in section 1A(3) “shall have the same meaning as set forth in 29 CFR Part 541.”7 So the operative salary test is the federal one, $684 per week or $35,568 a year.8 Below that you cannot be exempt. Above it, the duties have to match, and a manager's title over non-managerial work does not. See the administrative exemption.
Massachusetts has one of the strictest independent-contractor tests in the country. Under chapter 149, section 148B a worker is an employee unless the employer proves all three: freedom from control and direction, service performed outside the usual course of the employer's business, and the worker customarily engaged in an independently established trade of the same nature. Failing to withhold taxes or pay workers' compensation premiums “shall not be considered in making a determination under this section.”9 Prong two is where most 1099 arrangements fail: if the work you do is the business, you are an employee.
Three provisions workers rarely know about. Reporting pay: an employee scheduled for three or more hours who reports on time and is sent home early must be paid for at least three hours. On-call: “All on-call time is compensable working time unless the employee is not required to be at the work site or another location, and is effectively free to use his or her time for his or her own purposes.” Travel: time spent going somewhere other than your regular work site is paid beyond your ordinary commute.10 If that sounds like your week, read off-the-clock work.
Chapter 151 claims must be brought within three years, tolled from the day you or a similarly situated employee files with the Attorney General until a private-right-of-action letter issues.2 For Wage Act claims under chapter 149 — sections 148, 148A and 148B among them — suit is permitted “90 days after the filing of a complaint with the attorney general, or sooner if the attorney general assents in writing.”4 A real step, not a formality. We handle it.
The minimum wage has been $15.00 an hour since January 1, 2023, with a $6.75 tipped service rate, and no increase is scheduled.11 On retaliation, section 148A is direct: “No employee shall be penalized by an employer in any way as a result of any action on the part of an employee to seek his or her rights under the wages and hours provisions of this chapter.”12 That claim carries the same treble damages.
Jack Siegel has filed more than 100 federal overtime lawsuits in 27 federal courts, earned 50 or more class and collective certifications, and recovered more than $100 million for workers, as lead counsel on the firm's cases. Siegel Law Group has litigated unpaid overtime in Massachusetts. In Drake v. Tufts Associated Health Maintenance Organization, brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Jack Siegel served as lead counsel for care management employees who were paid a salary and treated as exempt. The case resolved for $85,614.99. Other results are listed here.
On a covered claim, yes. The statute says a prevailing employee “shall be awarded treble damages,” plus costs and attorney's fees, and the employer's good faith is not a defense.3,4
Generally no. Section 1A(16) exempts hospital, nursing home and similar employment, so your overtime claim will usually be federal — and the SJC has held you cannot pull Massachusetts treble damages onto an FLSA-only overtime claim.5,6 You may still have state Wage Act claims for unpaid straight-time wages.
Often. The state imports the federal definitions, so the salary test is $684 a week and the duties test is 29 C.F.R. Part 541. Below the salary figure you are non-exempt regardless of your duties.7,8
Not under state law — section 1A expressly excludes commissions, bonuses and incentive pay based on sales or production from the regular rate. Under federal law, nondiscretionary bonuses do count.1
For Wage Act claims under chapter 149, yes — suit follows 90 days after an AG complaint, or sooner with the AG's written assent, and the filing tolls your deadline.4,2
Every consultation is free and confidential, and we take overtime cases on contingency — we advance the costs of the case, those costs are repaid out of any recovery, and if we do not recover you owe us nothing: no attorney's fee and no costs. Call (214) 790-4454, email [email protected], or request a case review. Siegel Law Group PLLC, Austin, Texas. This page is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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