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

© 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2022 ed. | 121 Massachusetts employers in the industries listed below must find an applicable federal exemption before denying overtime wages to their employees. 682 The Massachusetts blanket exemptions apply to employees working in: • Hotels, motels, motor courts, or similar establishments • Restaurants 683 • Hospitals , 684 sanatoriums , 685 convalescent or nursing homes, rest homes, or charitable homes for the aged 686 • Gas stations • Non-profit schools or colleges • Summer camps operated by non-profit charitable corporations 687 The DLS has construed these blanket exceptions only to apply to employees who physically work on the premises of the types of establishments covered by the exemption. Thus, hotel employees are exempt from overtime, but hotel banquet servers who work off-site—not “in” the hotel—are entitled to overtime pay. 688 6. OtherMassachusetts Exemptions Massachusetts law also provides the following less commonly applied exemptions: 682 For example, banquet servers in hotels might meet the requirement s of the inside sales exempt ion under the FLSA. These individuals will also fall under the Massachuset t s hotel exempt ion. These employees would st ill earn the Massachuset t s minimum wage as discussed in Sect ion IV.A. However, if the banquet server is a t ipped employee and the employer takes the t ip credit and pays the employee an hourly rate of $3.75 per hour (discussed in Sect ion VIII), the amount of any overt ime compensat ion earned by the employee would be based on the federal minimum wage. 683 In Parham v. Wendy’s Co. , the court denied employer’s mot ion to dismiss overt ime claims filed by a service technician who t raveled from restaurant to restaurant performingmaintenance dut ies inside and out side of restaurant s, holding that the restaurant exempt ion applies only to employees who work within the restaurant , like host s, cashiers, servers, cooks, dishwashers, and other types of jobs t ied to the restaurant ’s operat ion. No. 14-cv-14367-ADB, 2015 U.S. Dist . LEXIS 33531 (D. Mass. March 17, 2015). 684 As discussed supra note 213, some hospitals are also exempt from the Payment of Wages Statute. 685 The term “sanatorium” is not defined in the statute. However, the DLS has adopted the definit ion in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (2008), which “defines the term ‘sanatorium’ as ‘1: an establishment that provides therapy by physical agent s (as hydrotherapy, light therapy) combinedwith diet , exercise, and other measures for t reatment or rehabilitation; 2a: an inst itut ion for rest and recuperat ion esp. for invalids and convalescent s, b: an establishment for the t reatment of the sick esp. if suffering from chronic disease (as alcoholism, tuberculosis, nervous or mental disease) requiring prot racted care.’ [The DLS], and it s predecessor, the Department of Labor and Indust ries, have narrowly const rued this exempt ion.” DLSOpinion Let ter MW- 2001-016 (Nov. 19, 2001). 686 Massachuset t s law prohibit s mandatory overt ime for hospital nurses except in emergency situat ions. M.G.L. ch. 111, § 226 (2012). 687 M.G.L. ch. 151, § 1A. 688 DLS Opinion Let ter MW-2006-001 (Mar. 10, 2006).