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. | 127 F. Damages Employers who violate MEPA are liable for unpaid wages, an equal amount as liquidated damages, and attorneys’ fees. The amendment to MEPA extends the statute of limitations from the prior one-year period to three years after the date of the alleged violation. A pay violation occurs each time an employee is paid. 720 The damages or penalties for a prohibited salary history request are unclear. The guidance from the Attorney General’s Office does not address this uncertainty. VIII. TIPS AND SERVICE CHARGES The Massachusetts Tip Statute governs two key areas of employee tipping. It defines the charges that are considered tips, gratuities, or service charges, and it regulates which employees may receive them. 721 The Massachusetts Tip Statute has increased in complexity over the years. When first enacted in 1952, the statute consisted of a single sentence that forbade employers from taking any share of tips earned by food and beverage service employees. 722 The Massachusetts legislature modified the statute several times after its enactment—in 1966 imposing fines for violations of the law , 723 in 1980 expanding the statute’s coverage beyond tips to include fees labeled as “service charges” (a term which the statute failed to define), 724 and in 1983 directing businesses that impose service charges to pay them to employees who have provided service in proportion to the amount of service they provided. 725 Up to that point, the law only governed tips or service charges distributed to workers within the food and beverage service industry. In 2004, the legislature substantially rewrote the Tip Statute. 726 Most significantly, the amended statute includes definitions of the key terms “tip” and “service charge,” and it identifies three categories of employees—wait staff employees, service employees, and service bartenders—who may receive tips (to the extent an employer mandates tip-pooling or sharing) and service charges. Of particular note, the amendments extend protection to employees outside the food and beverage industry. 720 Id . 721 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 152A. 722 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 152A; Moore v. Barnsider Mgmt. Corp. , 21 Mass. L. Rpt r. 313, 2006 WL 2423328, at *2 (Mass. Super. Ct . Aug. 15, 2006) (discussing history of the Massachuset t s T ip Statute). 723 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 152A (1966). 724 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 152A (1980). 725 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 152A (1983). 726 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 152A.
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