State labor lawRead at source, 24 September 2026

Massachusetts Labor Laws for Employers (2026): Breaks, Overtime, Final Pay and Hiring

Massachusetts requires a 30-minute meal break for anyone working more than six hours in a day, overtime at time and a half after 40 hours a week (no daily overtime), and a final paycheck on the day you fire someone (next payday if they quit). Employees earn one hour of sick time per 30 hours worked, up to 40 a year, paid if you have 11 or more employees, and the state runs paid family and medical leave. Before hiring: employers with 25 or more employees must post a pay range, and you can't ask about salary history or put criminal record questions on the initial application. The minimum wage is $15.00.

Massachusetts employment law at a glance

Massachusetts goes well beyond federal law on pay timing, sick time, paid family leave and hiring. The table covers the rules most hourly employers run into, with the statute or agency page for each.

Massachusetts break laws

Massachusetts has one break rule, and it's short: under M.G.L. c.149, s.100, "No person shall be required to work for more than six hours during a calendar day without an interval of at least thirty minutes for a meal." The penalty is a fine of $300 to $600 per violation.

Three points about how it works in practice. The trigger is more than six hours, so a shift of exactly six hours doesn't require a meal break. The statute says no person shall be required to work through, so the break must be offered. And the law doesn't say the meal break is paid; under federal rules a 30-minute break is unpaid only if the employee is fully relieved of duty. If you require the employee to stay on site or keep working, count it as paid time.

There is no state rest-break requirement. If you give short breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes, federal law under 29 CFR 785.18 treats them as paid work time.

Minors and lactation

Massachusetts has no separate break statute for minors; the six-hour meal rule applies to them like everyone else. The minor-specific rules are about hours and supervision, covered under hiring below. For nursing employees, the Massachusetts Pregnant Workers Fairness Act makes it unlawful to deny a reasonable accommodation for pregnancy-related conditions, "including, but not limited to, lactation or the need to express breast milk," unless it would impose an undue hardship (c.151B s.4(1E)). The federal PUMP Act also requires break time and a private, non-bathroom space for a year after birth. Our meal break laws by state page compares Massachusetts with its neighbors.

Massachusetts overtime laws

Under M.G.L. c.151, s.1A, employers must pay time and a half the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. There is no daily overtime. Commissions, bonuses and other incentive pay based on sales or production are excluded when computing the regular rate for state overtime.

The state law has its own list of exemptions, and several cover frontline workplaces. Section 1A doesn't apply to employees working in a hotel, motel or similar establishment, a restaurant, a gasoline station, a hospital, nursing home, rest home or similar facility, a nonprofit school or college, a business the commissioner has found seasonal (120 days or less a year), or on a farm, among others. That exemption is from the state law only. If your business is covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, as most restaurants, hotels and nursing homes are, federal overtime after 40 hours still applies. Don't read the state list as permission to stop paying overtime.

Executive, administrative and professional employees are exempt under state law, which sets an extremely low salary figure; in practice the federal salary and duties tests are what decide exempt status. See exempt vs. non-exempt. Private employers can't substitute comp time for overtime pay. For other states, see overtime laws by state.

Paying employees in Massachusetts

Minimum wage

The minimum wage is $15.00 an hour, in effect since January 1, 2023. The state's minimum wage page says the 2023 increase was the final step of a five-year schedule and no further increases are planned. The statute keeps the rate at least $0.50 above the federal minimum. Tipped service employees can be paid a $6.75 cash wage, but the employer must calculate at the end of each shift whether tips bring the employee to $15.00 and make up any shortfall, and must inform the employee of the rule (c.151 s.7). Agricultural workers have an $8.00 minimum. Full detail is on our Massachusetts minimum wage page.

Pay frequency, pay slips and final pay

The Wage Act, c.149 s.148, sets tight deadlines. Hourly employees must be paid weekly or biweekly, within six days of the end of the pay period (seven days if they work seven days a week). Each payment needs a pay slip showing the employer and employee names, the date, hours worked, hourly rate, and deductions or increases. An employee who is discharged must be paid in full on the day of discharge. An employee who quits is paid on the next regular payday, or the following Saturday if there's no regular payday. Holiday or vacation pay owed under an oral or written agreement counts as wages, so earned vacation goes in the final check.

The stakes are high. An employee who wins a Wage Act claim "shall be awarded treble damages" plus costs and attorney's fees (c.149 s.150). A late final paycheck can trigger it. See final paycheck laws by state and pay frequency laws by state.

Massachusetts hiring laws

Massachusetts regulates the hiring process itself: what goes in the job ad, what the application can ask, and what you can ask in the interview.

• Pay range in the posting. Since October 29, 2025, an employer with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts must include the pay range in any posting for a particular position, including recruitment done "indirectly through a third party" (c.149 s.105F). The pay range is the annual salary or hourly wage range the employer "reasonably and in good faith expects to pay." You must also give the range to an employee offered a promotion or transfer to a new role, and to an applicant for the position, or an employee in it, who asks. The Attorney General enforces it; the first offense is a warning, the second up to $500, the third up to $1,000, and postings made within the same 48 hours count as one offense (AG guidance).
• No salary history questions. You may not seek a candidate's wage or salary history from the candidate or a former employer, or require that past pay meet any criteria. You can confirm pay history the candidate volunteered, or ask after an offer with compensation has been made (c.149 s.105A(c)).
• Criminal records. An employer may not request criminal record information on its initial written application form, with narrow exceptions. At no stage may you ask about arrests that didn't lead to a conviction, a first conviction for certain minor misdemeanors, misdemeanor convictions 3 or more years old (unless there's a conviction in the last 3 years), or sealed and expunged records (c.151B s.4(9) and (9½); state summary).
• Lie detector notice on every application. Lie detector tests are banned for applicants and employees, and every application for employment in Massachusetts must carry this notice in legible print: "It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability." (c.149 s.19B). Check that your online application includes it.
• Noncompetes. A noncompetition agreement can't be enforced against an employee classified as non-exempt under the FLSA, an employee 18 or younger, or an employee terminated without cause or laid off (c.149 s.24L(c)). For hourly hires, a noncompete does nothing.
• E-Verify and Form I-9. Massachusetts doesn't require private employers to use E-Verify. Every employer completes Form I-9 for each hire.
• New-hire reporting. Report each new or returning employee to the Department of Revenue within 14 days of the start of, or return to, employment (DOR).
• Work permits. Anyone under 18 needs a work permit. You complete the promise-of-employment section of the application, the minor gets it approved by the school superintendent, and you keep the permit on file at each work location while the minor works for you (state guidance).

Hours limits for minors

According to the state's hours page, 14 and 15 year olds may not work during school hours, before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. (9 p.m. from July 1 to Labor Day), more than 3 hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a weekend or holiday, 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week outside the school year, or more than 6 days a week. Sixteen and 17 year olds may not work from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (with later limits for restaurants and racetracks on nights before non-school days), more than 9 hours a day, 48 hours a week or 6 days a week. No one under 18 may work after 8 p.m. without direct, on-site adult supervision. Our child labor laws by state page has the comparison.

Paid leave in Massachusetts

Earned sick time. Every employee earns at least one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year. Employers with 11 or more employees must pay it; smaller employers must provide it but can make it unpaid (Attorney General guidance; c.149 s.148C). Paid sick time is paid at the employee's regular hourly rate, and never less than the minimum wage.

Paid Family and Medical Leave. Massachusetts runs a state PFML program that offers eligible employees up to 26 weeks of paid leave in a benefit year for family or medical reasons. For 2025 and 2026 the total contribution is 0.88% of eligible wages. That rate applies to employers with 25 or more covered individuals, which must pay at least 60% of the medical leave share; employers with fewer than 25 don't owe the employer medical share, so they remit 0.46% of eligible wages, all of which can be withheld from wages. The Department of Family and Medical Leave sets each year's rate by October 1, and the 2027 rate hadn't been set when we checked (DFML rates page).

Unused vacation you've promised is wages under the Wage Act and must be paid at separation; sick time isn't. See PTO payout laws by state.

Local rules

The rules above are statewide. Minimum wage, overtime, sick time and pay transparency are set by state law, and the Attorney General's Fair Labor Division enforces the wage laws in every city and town. If you hold a contract with a city, check the contract itself for any wage or benefit terms the city has attached to it.

Posters and records

Massachusetts requires a set of state notices, including the wage and hour poster, the fair employment poster, the earned sick time notice and the PFML notice; the state's poster requirements page lists them. Federal posters apply as well. Our labor law posters by state page has the full picture, and employee handbook requirements by state covers policies you should put in writing.

What this means when you're hiring hourly workers in Massachusetts

If you have 25 or more employees in the state, the hourly rate or range belongs in every ad, including the ones a recruiting partner runs for you. For hourly roles that's no loss: pay is what candidates look for first, so it should be in the first line with the shift and the town. Make sure the application itself is compliant too: no salary history question, no criminal-record question, and the lie detector notice included. A short application that meets those rules is easier to finish on a phone. Our job ad copywriting guide shows how to lead with pay, the pay transparency laws by state page compares Massachusetts with other states, and the employee cost calculator shows what a $15.00 hire costs with payroll taxes added.

Frequently asked questions

Rules read at the Massachusetts General Laws and mass.gov on 24 September 2026. Part of Boostpoint’s state labor law series; see also minimum wage by state.