The Massachusetts Weekly Payment of Wages Law (the “Wage Act”) is the most important protection for employees’ wages in Massachusetts. If your current or former employer has failed to pay you earned wages, including commissions and non-discretionary bonuses, and earned vacation, this is wage theft and you can sue for three times the unpaid amount and your attorneys’ fees.  This is true even if you’ve been wrongfully classified as an independent contractor, which is quite common in Massachusetts.

 

Here are a list of topics about the Wage Act discussed on this page.  Click a topic to go to the information, or just scroll down.  Feel free to suggest a new topic or question.

 Recovering Unpaid Wages in Massachusetts
 Timing of Wage Payments
 Retaliation for Wage or Overtime Complaints
 Docking Pay (and other involuntary deductions)
 “Off-the-Clock” Work
 Are You an Independent Contractor? Have You Been Misclassified?
 Commissions and bonuses
 Overtime Rights in Massachusetts
 Can You Recover Vacation or Sick Time under the Wage Act?
 What is Prevailing Wage? Do You Have a Prevailing Wage Claim?
 Are You Entitled to Overtime?
 What About Delivery Fees or Tips?
 Can You Bring a Class-Action for Unpaid Wages?

It depends on the situation, but it’s smart to contact an attorney ASAP. The reason for this is that the law states that payment of the wages after the filing of a complaint is not a defense in the case. If it weren’t for this law, employers could simply hold off on paying you, then make you spend time and money chasing your money, and finally make the payment with no additional trouble or expense. The law does not intend that result. The law provides that an employee will receive three times their unpaid wages and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs if the employee takes their case to court and wins. A law that became effective on July 13, 2008 made triple (called “treble”) damages mandatory, if you win your case.

The Wage Act is designed so that normal people can afford an attorney to handle their wage claims.  It is not necessary and often foolish to handle a Wage Act case by yourself because you cannot recover attorneys’ fees without an attorney (even if you yourself happen to be a licensed Massachusetts attorney!).

We are Massachusetts attorneys representing individuals in unpaid wage and overtime cases.  If you think your employer owes you wages, send an email to attorney@mass-legal.com describing your situation or call 617-338-9400.  When we take an unpaid wage or overtime case, our fees come from the defendant, not from you. 

The Attorney General is given notice of all suits under the Wage Act.  We will do this for you if we take your case, so it makes sense to check in with us first.  In the vast majority of cases, the Attorney General complaint does not result in any money recovery for the employee, but it must be done to bring a claim under the Wage Act in court.  Only once you file in court, do you lock in triple damages: the employer gets notice of the matter and is required to pay treble damages and fees if you prevail in the case.  This creates strong incentive for the employer to settle the case on favorable terms.

 

Related Blog Post: Getting Help with an AG Wage Complaint.
For more information: Massachusetts Wage Claims.
For more information: Attorney General Wage Complaint.

Your employer must pay your earned wages within six days after the end of a pay period (or within seven days if you have a seven-day workweek). A special rule requires that if you are terminated, you must be paid in full on your last day of work. This includes pay for unused vacation time.  However, if you resign you must be paid on the next payday.

Employees working in executive, administrative or professional capacities may be paid bi-weekly or semi-monthly.

 

It is illegal to fire an employee for trying to get paid their wages. The law says “No employee shall be penalized by an employer in any way as a result of any action on the part of an employee to seek his or her rights under the wages and hours provisions of this chapter.” See G.L. 149, s. 148A. That being said, your employer may still fire you or otherwise punish you for seeking your wages, but this would give rise to a retaliation lawsuit. The Supreme Judicial Court in Smith v. Winter Place, LLC held that even internal complaints (to a boss or manager leading to your dismissal) could form the basis of a retaliation claim. Retaliation claims often result in large damage awards if the act of retaliation is close in time to the wage complaint or there are other indicators of retaliation.

Related Article: Wage and Overtime Claims and Retaliation.
For more information: Wage and Overtime Retaliation.

In general, your employer cannot withhold payment of your full wages or make improper deductions from your wages. Usually the only deductions that are allowable besides taxes and FICA are voluntary deductions like insurance, union dues, retirement contributions and loan repayments.  Generally, involuntary deductions require a court order, like trustee process order (wage garnishment).

An employer cannot withhold wages for damages caused by employees or because an employee has not returned company equipment or materials.  In the latter instance, the employer can sue for the withheld materials, but they can’t unilaterally judge the amount owed and withhold wages on that basis.

Related Blog Post: What is a “Valid Set-off” under the Massachusetts Wage Act?
For more information: Wage Set Offs

You must be paid for all your time worked if you are an hourly employee.  Here are some common violations of the Wage Act.

 Not being paid for time spent working through meal breaks;

 Working off the clock to meet deadlines (even your managers says you’re not supposed to);

 Time working from home when you are an hourly employee and your employer knows about the work;

 Getting ready for work–putting on uniforms and equipment, taking off these items at the end of a shift;

 On call time when you cannot leave the job site or are not effectively free to use your time for your own purposes;

 Travel time during the day, like between job sites or from a site to the office;

 Rounding off time card entries in a way that benefits the employer.

 Unpaid training

For more information: Off the Clock Work.
For more information: Travel Time Pay.
For more information: Meal Breaks.

 

This is the busy area of wage and overtime litigation in Massachusetts. If an employer misclassifies an employee as a 1099 independent contractor, it can be liable for damages to the worker unlawfully in the independent contractor arrangement. It also can be liable to pay back overtime if the employee is not exempt and has worked more than 40 hours in a week.

All three of the following must be true for a person performing services in Massachusetts to be a valid independent contractor.

A. You are free from control and direction in connection with the performance of your work, both under any contract and in the reality of your job; and

B. Your work is performed outside the usual course of the business of your employer (this is the key one, contractors who perform the normal work of the business are almost always employees); and,

C. You are customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as the work you so in your job.

The bottom line is that almost anyone with a job in Massachusetts should get paid via payroll check. That means that if you have a job but you get paid without taxes being taken out of your check, you probably have a claim for money damages. What those damages will be depends on whether you have other unlawful deductions from your pay and whether business expenses and deductions are being shifted to you.

Almost everybody who works and gets 1099s is misclassified as an independent contsractor in Massachusetts.

For more information: Overtime Wages.

The Massachusetts Wage Act applies to the payment of commissions when the amount of commission “has been definitely determined and has become due and payable.” Commission disputes are fairly common in Massachusetts. Although it used to be a hotly contested point, the Massachusetts courts (most recently, the Appeals Court in Okerman v. VA Software Corp.) have made it very clear that the Wage Act applies to all employment commissions as long as they meet the requirements of bring are “due and payable” and “definitely determined.”

As the Supreme Judicial Court stated in the case of in Wiedmann v. The Bradford Group, Inc., 444 Mass. 698 (2005), a commission payment is definitely determined when it can be calculated arithmetically.  This requires that all of the mathematical factors needed to calculate the commission be known or knowable.

All commissions are based on contingencies, usually sales. Companies have the right to define when and under what circumstances commissions will be due and payable. If an employer is smart and careful, they will put this in writing and make sure all of the factors are very clear, including timing of payment.  If an employer is silent on commission terms, its actions, practices and course of dealing between the employer and employee (and sometimes other employees) will taken into account and used to determine what the “deal” was with respect to commissions.

 

The term “commission” is commonly understood to refer to compensation owed to those in the business of selling goods, services, or real estate, set typically as a percentage of the sales price. See, e.g., Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary 364 (2d ed. 1983) (defining “commission” as “[a] percentage of the money taken in on sales, given as pay to a salesclerk or agent, usually in addition to salary or wages”). The compensation at issue here was of a different sort, a share of the overall profits generated by the development efforts. Whatever the precise boundary of the term “commission” as used in the Wage Act, we agree with the trial judge’s conclusion that any money owed Suominen under such a profit-sharing arrangement was not a “commission” covered by the statute.

Suominen v. Goodman Indus. Equities Management Group, LLC, 78 Mass.App.Ct. 723, 738 (2011).  

 

Bonuses that are tied to definable metrics based on sales are also sometimes subject to the Wage Act.  However, this is a hot-button issue right now in Massachusetts, with the federal court sometimes construing the Supreme Judicial Court’s Weems decision to mean that bonuses with any discretionary elements are not covered by the Wage Act.

Another hot-button issues is what happens when an employee is terminated or resigns before a commission (or bonus) is paid but after all or most of the factors that give rise to the commission (or bonus) have happened.  This depends on the facts, but has been some good case law on this point recently, notably McAleer v. Prudential Insurance Company of America.  We have handled several of these cases.  Feel free to contact us about your situation.

Related Blog Post: Bonuses and Commissions under the Wage Act
Related Blog Post: Are Bonuses Wages in Massachusetts?
For More Information: Bonuses
For More Information: Commissions

 

It depends on the situation, but it’s smart to contact an attorney ASAP. The reason for this is that the law states that payment of the wages after the filing of a complaint is not a defense in the case. If it weren’t for this law, employers could simply hold off on paying you, then make you spend time and money chasing your money, and finally make the payment with no additional trouble or expense. The law does not intend that result. The law provides that an employee will receive three times their unpaid wages and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs if the employee takes their case to court and wins. A law that became effective on July 13, 2008 made triple (called “treble”) damages mandatory, if you win your case.

The Wage Act is designed so that normal people can afford an attorney to handle their wage claims.  It is not necessary and often foolish to handle a Wage Act case by yourself because you cannot recover attorneys’ fees without an attorney (even if you yourself happen to be a licensed Massachusetts attorney!).

We are Massachusetts attorneys representing individuals in unpaid wage and overtime cases.  If you think your employer owes you wages, send an email to attorney@mass-legal.com describing your situation or call 617-338-9400.  When we take an unpaid wage or overtime case, our fees come from the defendant, not from you. 

 

The Attorney General is given notice of all suits under the Wage Act.  We will do this for you if we take your case, so it makes sense to check in with us first.  In the vast majority of cases, the Attorney General complaint does not result in any money recovery for the employee, but it must be done to bring a claim under the Wage Act in court.  Only once you file in court, do you lock in triple damages: the employer gets notice of the matter and is required to pay treble damages and fees if you prevail in the case.  This creates strong incentive for the employer to settle the case on favorable terms.

 

Related Blog Post: Getting Help with an AG Wage Complaint.