Mass-Peculiarities: An Employers Guide to Wage & Hour Law in the Bay State 2022 Edition

116 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2022 ed. © 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP 3. Motor Carrier Exemptions Both the Massachusetts Minimum Fair Wage Law and the FLSA exempt certain employees working with large motor vehicles from overtime pay requirements. 642 However, these employees must still be paid minimum wage. In general, the Massachusetts motor carrier exemption closely tracks the Motor Carrier Act (MCA) exemption under the FLSA and thus a review of federal law will provide the parameters for the Massachusetts motor carrier exemption. 643 Massachusetts also has a second exemption that applies to common carriers of passengers by motor vehicle, which is discussed below. 644 a. Federal Motor Carrier Act Exemption The FLSA’s MCA exemption applies to (1) drivers, drivers’ helpers, loaders, and mechanics (2) who are involved in the transport of goods in interstate commerce and (3) whose work directly affects the safety of operation of a commercial vehicle (4) that weighs more than 10,000 pounds. 645 The FLSA also exempts other groups from its overtime requirements regardless of vehicle weight, including those working on certain passenger vehicles, including school buses, chartered passenger vehicles, and buses engaged in public transportation. 646 Under the FLSA, “drivers” are those who operate motor vehicles in the course of interstate or foreign commerce. 647 An employee may perform other job duties and still qualify as a driver because the regulations explicitly recognize that “even full-duty drivers devote some of their working time to activities other than such driving.” 648 “Drivers’ helpers” are those who are required to ride on a motor vehicle at least part of the time and whose work impacts the safety or operation of the truck. 649 An employee who loads trucks but does not ride on them does not qualify as a helper. 650 Under federal law, “loaders” are those with responsibility “for exercising judgment and discretion in planning and building a balanced load or in placing, distributing, or securing the pieces of freight in such a manner that the safe operation of the vehicles on the highways in interstate or foreign commerce will not be jeopardized.” 651 Loaders may also be 642 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(1); 29 C.F.R. § 782.1 et seq .; M.G.L. ch. 151, §§ 1A(8) and (11). 643 DLS Opinion Let ter MW-2002-008 (Feb. 26, 2002). 644 See M.G.L. ch. 151, § 1A(11); M.G.L. ch. 159A. 645 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(1); 29 C.F.R. § 782.1 et seq . While the FLSA exempt s loaders and mechanics from overt ime pay requirement s, the Massachuset t s motor carrier exempt ion does not . DLSOpinion Let ter MW-2002-008 (Feb. 26, 2002) (“The state exempt ion, M.G.L. c. 151, § 1A(8), applies only to a subset of these workers: ‘a driver or helper on a t ruck.’”). 646 DOL Wage & Hour Fact Sheet #19 (Nov. 2009). Drivers of passenger vehicles are exempt if their vehicles are (1) designed or used to t ransport more than eight passengers, including the driver, for compensat ion; or (2) designed or used to t ransport more than fifteen passengers, including the driver, without compensat ion. Id . 647 29 C.F.R. § 782.3. 648 29 C.F.R. § 782.3(a). 649 29 C.F.R. § 782.4. 650 See id . 651 29 C.F.R. § 782.5(a).