Overtime Violations
Get Your Overtime Pay
P
ossibly the most common of all wage violations are overtime violations. Both Massachusetts and federal law provide significant protections to employees who work over forty hours per week. Unless the employee is considered “exempt” under both Massachusetts and federal overtime law, the employee must be paid time and one half their normal hourly rate for all hours worked over forty in a week.
Frequently, an employer will erroneously claim that the employee is covered by one of the state or federal overtime exemptions. Professional, executive and administrative employees are exempt from overtime, as are approximately 20 other classifications of workers. The exemptions can be found in M.G.L. c. 151, s. 1A. For an employee to be covered by one of these exemptions, in many cases they must be permitted by their employer to exercise independent judgment when performing their job, and be paid on a salary basis; meaning their wages cannot fluctuate on a week to week basis based upon the number of hours they work or the quality of their work.
Just recently the Massachusetts overtime law was amended to change the statute of limitations to three years. This means an employee can go back three full years and recover any overtime wages they were not paid in this period of time. If successful in a suit to recover unpaid overtime wages, an employee is entitled to recover triple damages, attorneys’ fees and any expenses associated with the lawsuit.
Contact Boston Employment Law

13
Dec2017
Related Employment Law Services
As of January 1st 2015, the new minimum wage in Massachusetts Is $9.00/hr. The Commonwealth has instituted an aggressive minimum wage initiative to raise the minimum wage $1.00 each year…
You’re working hard, you’re earning tips, but are you getting paid all your tips?
Under Massachusetts law, only three classes of employees are eligible to receive and share tips…
Does the company you work with consider you an independent contractor as opposed to an employee? As a result of the costs associated with treating an individual as an employee…
Possibly the most common of all wage violations are overtime violations. Both Massachusetts and federal law provide significant protections to employees who work over forty hours per week…
Many employees in Massachusetts and throughout the country receive commissions and bonuses as part of the wages that they earn at work. In Massachusetts, for an employee to be entitled…
The Massachusetts Prevailing Wage Law establishes minimum hourly wage rates for workers on public construction projects, and operators of vehicles and equipment engaged by public entities for public works projects…