Massachusetts Labor Laws PDF: Wages, Sick Time, and PFML

Free, official PDFs of Massachusetts labor laws — every required workplace poster and the Attorney General’s plain-language guides on wages, overtime, breaks, earned sick time, paid family and medical leave, and independent contractor rules — are available on the Attorney General’s Workplace Rights Publications page at Mass.gov.¹ Downloading from that page gives you the current, legally recognized version of each document, and most posters are also available in Chinese, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

Where to Download the Official PDFs

The Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division publishes the Commonwealth’s workplace posters and guides through a single Mass.gov page.¹ The same page hosts downloadable guides on domestic worker rights, child labor, independent contractor rules, and anti-retaliation protections. Third-party sites often sell reprints of these same documents; there’s no reason to pay for them.

The Fair Labor Division is also the office that enforces most of these statutes, with authority to investigate complaints, issue civil citations, and pursue criminal charges.² Federal posters, such as the EEOC “Know Your Rights” notice, come from federal agencies rather than Mass.gov and must also be displayed.³

Required Workplace Posters

Massachusetts employers must display these notices in a location where all workers can easily see them:⁴

Massachusetts Wage and Hour Laws (M.G.L. c. 151, § 16)
Fair Employment Law (M.G.L. c. 151B, § 7)
Parental Leave Notice (M.G.L. c. 149, § 105D)
Unemployment Insurance Coverage (M.G.L. c. 151A, § 62A)
Workers’ Compensation Notice (M.G.L. c. 152, § 22)
Earned Sick Time (M.G.L. c. 149, § 148C)
PFML Workplace Poster (M.G.L. c. 175M)
Job Safety and Health (private companies) or Safety and Health Poster (public agencies)

The EEOC poster must be placed in a conspicuous location and made accessible to workers with disabilities.³

What the Laws Actually Say

The PDFs summarize a set of statutes that together rank among the strongest worker protections in the country. Here’s what each one requires.

Minimum Wage

The Massachusetts minimum wage is $15.00 per hour for most workers.⁵ The rate took effect January 1, 2023, as the final step of a five-year phased increase, and no further automatic adjustments are scheduled.⁶

Tipped employees who regularly earn more than $20 per month in tips have a service rate of $6.75 per hour. The employer must make up any shortfall so that the service rate plus tips reaches $15.00 per hour for the pay period.⁶

Overtime

Most employees are entitled to one and a half times their regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a single workweek.⁷ Overtime is calculated on a weekly basis only, so a 12-hour day doesn’t trigger overtime if the weekly total stays at or below 40 hours.

The exemption list is long. Employees in restaurants, hotels, gas stations, farms, seasonal amusement parks, nonprofit schools, and certain healthcare facilities are excluded from the state overtime requirement, along with bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees earning above a minimum salary threshold.⁷ The state’s former Sunday and holiday premium under the “Blue Laws” was eliminated on January 1, 2023, though employees generally cannot be forced to work on holidays.

Meal Breaks

Anyone who works more than six hours in a calendar day is entitled to a meal break of at least 30 minutes.⁸ The worker must be completely free from duties during the break. If the employer requires the worker to stay at their station or remain available, the time counts as paid work.⁹ Violations carry a fine of $300 to $600 per incident.

Wage Payment

Employers must pay most hourly workers on a weekly or biweekly schedule, with payment due within six days of the end of the pay period. A fired or laid-off employee must receive every dollar of earned wages, including accrued vacation, on the final day of employment. A worker who quits must receive full payment by the next regular payday.¹⁰

Wages include earned commissions that are definitively determined and due, and employers cannot withhold them because of an unrelated dispute. A first willful violation of the payday statute carries a fine between $10,000 and $50,000, up to two years in jail, or both; a second violation can bring $20,000 to $100,000, up to five years, or both.¹⁰ An employee who sues under M.G.L. c. 149, § 150 and wins automatically receives treble damages plus attorney’s fees, and that treble-damages rule applies broadly to most wage violations.¹¹

Earned Sick Time

Employees accrue one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year. Accrual begins on the date of hire, but new employees can’t use their time until the 90th calendar day. Employers with 11 or more employees must provide the time as paid leave; smaller employers must still allow accrual and use, but the time may be unpaid.¹² Workers can carry over up to 40 unused hours, but the annual usage cap remains 40. Unused sick time isn’t paid out at separation.

Paid Family and Medical Leave

PFML is a separate state insurance program under M.G.L. c. 175M. Workers can take up to 20 weeks of paid medical leave for their own serious health condition, up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to bond with a new child or care for a family member, and up to 26 weeks to care for a covered service member. The combined maximum in a single benefit year is 26 weeks.¹³

The program is funded through payroll contributions. For 2026, employers with 25 or more covered individuals contribute at a combined rate of 0.88% of eligible wages; smaller employers pay an effective 0.46% because they aren’t responsible for the employer share of medical leave.¹⁴ The maximum weekly benefit for 2026 is $1,230.39.¹⁵

Independent Contractor Classification

Massachusetts uses one of the strictest classification tests in the country. Under M.G.L. c. 149, § 148B, every worker is presumed to be an employee unless the hiring business can prove all three prongs of an “ABC” test:¹⁶

The worker is free from the company’s direction and control over how the work is performed, in practice and under contract.
The work is performed outside the usual course of the hiring company’s business.
The worker has an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same type as the service provided.

Failing any single prong means the worker is legally an employee entitled to minimum wage, overtime, earned sick time, and every other protection. Misclassification exposes the business to the same criminal and civil penalties as other wage violations, including debarment from public contracts.¹⁶

Personnel Records

Every employee can review their personnel file by submitting a written request, and the employer must provide access within five business days.¹⁷ Employers aren’t required to allow more than two reviews per calendar year, but a review triggered by the employer placing negative information in the file doesn’t count toward that limit.¹⁸ Workers who disagree with something in the file can submit a written rebuttal that becomes a permanent part of the record.

Filing a Complaint

Workers who believe an employer has violated any of these laws can file a complaint directly with the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division, which investigates wage and hour violations, child labor issues, and public construction bid disputes.¹⁹ After filing, a worker must wait 90 days before bringing a private lawsuit unless the Attorney General grants written permission to proceed sooner. The statute of limitations on wage claims is three years from the violation, and that clock pauses while the Attorney General’s office reviews the complaint.¹¹

1
Mass.gov. Workplace Rights Publications
2
Mass.gov. The Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division
3
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination Is Illegal Poster
4
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Workplace Poster Requirements
5
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 151 Section 1 – Oppressive and Unreasonable Wages; Validity of Contracts
6
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Law About Minimum Wage
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 151 Section 1A – Overtime Pay; Excluded Employments
8
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 149 Section 100
9
Mass.gov. Breaks and Time Off
10
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 149 Section 148 – Payment of Wages
11
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 149 Section 150
12
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 149 Section 148C
13
Mass.gov. Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Overview and Benefits
14
Mass.gov. Paid Family and Medical Leave Employer Contribution Rates and Calculator
15
Mass.gov. How PFML Weekly Benefit Amounts Are Calculated and/or Changed
16
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 149 Section 148B
17
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 149 Section 52C – Personnel Records; Review by Employee; Corrections; Penalty
18
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 149 Section 52C – Personnel Records
19
Mass.gov. Complaints and Enforcement