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. | 9 • An employee who works 50 hours, 8 of them on Sunday, is entitled to a total of 10 hours at the overtime rate of one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate. As in the prior example, the employee is entitled to premium pay for the Sunday hours, and if the premium rate is 1.2 times, then the premium is likely included in determining the employee’s regular rate for calculating the 10 hours of overtime under the FLSA. • An employee who in 2021 works 30 hours, 8 hours on Sunday, is entitled to 8 hours at 1.2 times the employee’s regular rate. Employers do not have to pay Sunday premium pay to “bona fide executive or administrative or professional persons earning more than two hundred dollars a week.” 19 Non-retail employers that operate on Sunday are not subject to the premium pay requirements. 20 b. Voluntariness of Work on Sunday In addition to the premium pay requirements, no employee of a retail employer with more than seven employees can be required to work on Sunday, and “refusal to work for any retail establishment on Sunday shall not be grounds for discrimination, dismissal, discharge, reduction in hours, or any other penalty.” 21 Although Massachusetts is phasing out the Sunday premium pay requirement, the voluntariness requirement remains unchanged. An employee is free to revoke his or her assent to work on Sundays after the time of hire, and an employer may not take action against an employee for refusing to work on Sundays, even if the employee previously agreed to do so. As with premium pay, these provisions do not apply to non-retail employers operating on Sunday. 22 5. Legal Holidays Although the Sunday work laws are complex, their complexity pales in comparison to the patchwork of laws governing work on legal holidays. For example, the Massachusetts legislature extended the Sunday closure requirements to some of the statutory holidays, including Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Juneteenth Indepedence Day (June 18), Independence Day, Labor Day (first Monday in September), Columbus Day (second Monday in October) before noon, and Veterans Day (November 11) before 1 p.m. 23 Thus, businesses prohibited from operating on Sunday pursuant to the Massachusetts Blue Laws are also prohibited from operating on these holidays. Conversely, businesses permitted to operate on Sunday typically may stay open on holidays. The provisions regarding premium pay and voluntariness of work that apply to retail 19 M.G.L. ch. 136, § 6(50). Massachuset t s law does not define “bona fide execut ive or administ rat ive or professional persons.” Because these classificat ions mirror the terms used in the FLSA to sanct ion overt ime exemptions, Massachuset t s employers may consult this body of federal law for guidance in determiningwhich of their employees are exempt from premium pay. 20 M.G.L. ch. 136, § 6. 21 M.G.L. ch. 136, § 6(50). 22 M.G.L. ch. 136, § 6. 23 M.G.L. ch. 136, §§ 13-16.