Rhode Island is one of a handful of states requiring premium pay for working a Sunday or a holiday — whatever your weekly hours add up to. It is the most commonly missed wage rule in the state. And since 2024, willful failure to pay wages here is a felony.
Most states have nothing like this. Rhode Island requires that “[w]ork performed by employees on Sundays and holidays must be paid for at least one and one-half (1½) times the normal rate of pay.”2
What matters is what it does not say. It is not tied to a 40-hour threshold. Work 32 hours in a week that includes a Sunday shift and the premium is owed on those Sunday hours anyway. Weekly overtime and Sunday premium are separate entitlements, so an employer that paid you straight time for Sundays owes the difference even in a week where no overtime was triggered.
The statute also protects the choice: refusing a Sunday or an enumerated holiday “is not grounds for discharge or other penalty upon any employee.”2 The labour department states the limit plainly — employees cannot be discharged or penalised for refusing, “unless they are employed by a manufacturer which operates for seven (7) continuous days per week.”6
Exemptions exist and are narrower than employers assume: manufacturers running continuously seven days a week; certain wall-covering manufacturers; some three-shift operations; round-the-clock chauffeur and taxi services; and car rental agencies at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport required by lease to operate on Sundays and holidays.2 If your employer is not one of those, “we don’t pay extra for Sundays” does not survive the statute.
The weekly rule is ordinary: all employees must be paid “time and one-half the worker’s regular rate for all hours in excess of forty (40) in one week.”1
Enforcement is the part worth knowing, because Rhode Island splits the rule and the remedy across two chapters. The overtime chapter has no damages provision — it routes you elsewhere: a person aggrieved by a violation of chapter 28-12 “shall be entitled to relief as provided in chapter 14 of this title.”7 An overtime claim is therefore enforced through the payment-of-wages chapter, picking up its remedies and its deadline.
An employee may recover “unpaid wages and/or benefits, compensatory damages, and liquidated damages in an amount up to two (2) times the amount of unpaid wages,” with attorney’s fees and costs. The action can be brought by one or more employees “individually and/or on behalf of other employees similarly situated,” and an agreement to work for less than the applicable rate is no defence.5
One correction, because it circulates widely. Rhode Island does not have mandatory treble damages — sources saying otherwise usually confuse it with a neighbouring state. The multiplier is up to two times, it sits on top of the unpaid wages and compensatory damages, and willfulness bears on penalties rather than multiplying the award automatically.5 Up to double plus fees is still real leverage. It is just worth knowing what the statute says before someone quotes you a number.
An employer that “knowingly and willfully” violates the payment-of-wages provisions, where “the actual value of the wages due to an employee exceeds one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500),” “shall be guilty of a felony and shall be imprisoned by a term not exceeding three (3) years, or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or both.”8 Effective January 1, 2024. That is a criminal exposure prosecuted by the state, not something you collect — but it tells you how Rhode Island now regards an employer that knows it owes wages and does not pay them.
A Rhode Island wage claim “shall be forever barred unless commenced within three (3) years.”4 The labour department applies the same period to claims it collects on.6 A federal claim runs two years, or three where the violation was willful.9
So the Rhode Island period is the longer, more reliable window — it does not require you to prove willfulness to reach the third year. Both clocks run backwards from the day a case is filed, so each month of delay drops a month off the oldest end of the recovery. See statute of limitations.
Rhode Island legislated a schedule rather than leaving the rate to inflation: $15.00 from January 1, 2025, $16.00 from January 1, 2026, $17.00 from January 1, 2027.3 If you are on a flat salary and your hours have crept up, do the arithmetic against it — a fixed salary divided by the hours you actually work falls as the weeks get longer, and a rising floor catches more salaried workers each January.
A salary does not make anyone exempt. Exempt status turns on your pay and what you actually do, and the duties half is where employers come unstuck.
Rhode Island’s employment base makes certain misclassifications predictable. This is a dense state for health insurance, managed care and claims administration — CVS Health is headquartered in Woonsocket — and those are the roles labelled administratively exempt on the strength of a title. Case management, care coordination, utilization review, claims review: the work is applying someone else’s clinical criteria and coverage guidelines to a file. That is production work, not independent judgment on matters of significance. See case managers and utilization review.
Chapter 28-14 includes a retaliation provision, and the minimum wage chapter separately prohibits discrimination against an employee who invokes it.10 Being disciplined, demoted, cut back or fired after raising a wage question can be a claim in its own right.
You can file with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, which is empowered to collect wages, or bring a private action, which reaches the liquidated damages and the fee-shifting and can cover a group paid the same way. Gather pay stubs, schedules, and anything showing which days you worked — Sundays and holidays especially.
Siegel Law Group is based in Dallas, Texas and litigates these cases nationwide: more than 100 federal overtime lawsuits, over 50 class and collective certifications, more than $100 million recovered for workers. The firm concentrates in misclassification cases against health plans and claims administrators. We represent employees only, and you do not need a lawyer in Rhode Island to bring a Rhode Island claim.
Yes — not less than one and one-half times the normal rate for Sunday and holiday work, regardless of how many hours you worked that week. Several industry exemptions apply.2
$16.00 per hour, effective January 1, 2026, rising to $17.00 on January 1, 2027.3
Three years — a claim is forever barred unless commenced within that period.4 A federal claim runs two years, or three if willful,9 so the state period is generally longer.
Generally no. Refusing a Sunday or an enumerated holiday is not grounds for discharge or other penalty. The main exception is employment by a manufacturer operating seven continuous days per week.26
Consultations are free and confidential. These cases are generally handled on contingency — we advance case costs, they are repaid out of any recovery, and if we do not recover you owe us nothing, no fee and no costs — and wage statutes generally shift your attorney’s fees onto the employer if you prevail. Tell us what happened, or call (214) 790-4454.
Law verified October 3, 2026. Figures and statutory text current as of that date.
This website contains attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is general information about Rhode Island and federal wage law, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Siegel Law Group PLLC, 8350 N Central Expy #850, Dallas, TX 75206.
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