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. | 63 part, consistent with one another. Employers should be aware, however, that federal law in this area is more detailed and thus may be interpreted or enforced differently. Under the FLSA, “workers with disabilities” include those whose “productive capacity” is impaired by physical or mental disability, age, or injury. 359 Such disabilities may include blindness, mental illness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, or substance abuse. 360 Conditions that do not qualify as disabilities for sub-minimum wage purposes include vocational, social, cultural, or educational disabilities, chronic unemployment, receipt of welfare benefits, nonattendance at school, juvenile delinquency, and being on parole or probation. 361 Employers that pay disabled employees on an hourly basis must review the sub-minimum wages paid to these employees every six months. Wages for all employees with disabilities must be adjusted yearly to reflect changes in the prevailing wages paid to experienced non-disabled individuals doing the same type of work in the same geographic area. 362 Exemptions from Massachusetts and Federal Minimum Wage Requirements Massachusetts Law Federal Law Volunteers Same as federal law Must satisfy six-factor test: 1. Nature of entity receiving services 2. Worker’s expectation of receiving benefit from the work 3. Less than full-time occupation 4. No regular employees are displaced 5. Freedom from pressure or coercion 6. Services are typically associated with volunteer work 359 29 C.F.R. § 525.3(d); DOL Compliance Poster, Employee Rights for Workers with Disabilities Paid at Special Minimum Wages (Jan. 2018), available a t ht tp://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/posters/disabc.pdf ( hereinafter, “ Disabilities Poster ”) (last visited Sept . 24, 2021). 360 29 C.F.R. § 525.3(d). 361 Id . 362 29 C.F.R. § 525.9(b).