© 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. | 115 1. Default “Closure Rule” The Blue Laws are in essence business closure laws, and the first issue that an employer must address is whether it is allowed to operate on Sunday. Understanding the original purpose of the Blue Laws may resolve some of the confusion regarding this issue. The Blue Laws originated in the late 17th century to restrict all Sunday activities. Over time, some of the Massachusetts restrictions on Sunday activity eased (for example, it became legal to operate an ice cream parlor on Sunday in 1902, to engage in unpaid gardening in one’s yard in 1930, and to dance at a Sunday wedding in 1955), but Massachusetts maintains a broad prohibition against operating a business on Sundays and certain holidays, which, to many, seems out of sync with the modern world. Even today, the default rule imposed in Massachusetts is that “[w]hoever on Sunday keeps open his shop, warehouse, factory or other place of business, or sells foodstuffs, goods, wares, merchandise or real estate, or does any manner of labor, business or work, except works of necessity and charity” is in violation of the Blue Laws.676 2. Exemptions Over the last century, the Commonwealth gradually has narrowed these prohibitions by enacting numerous piecemeal exemptions to the Blue Laws, and there are now fifty-five specific exemptions, listed in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 136, Section 6, that allow certain businesses to operate legally on Sunday. The first question that an employer therefore must ask is whether it falls within one of the exemptions listed in the statute. If a business does not qualify for an exemption, it may not legally operate in Massachusetts on Sundays unless it obtains a permit, as described below. If a business does qualify for one of these exemptions, it must then determine whether it is subject to the voluntariness of work requirements of the Blue Laws, described below. 3. Permits for Necessary Sunday Work or Labor Businesses that are not generally allowed to open on Sundays may obtain a single-day permit, generally for a small fee, if they have a valid reason to operate on a given Sunday.677 In order to obtain a permit, the employer must submit a written request to the chief of police of the town or city in which the business is located.678 The employer must apply within sixty days prior to the day on which the permit will be used, and the chief of police must issue, or deny issuance of, the permit within fifteen days of application.679 The mayor or selectman of the target town or city sets the fee for the permit, which by statute must be $10.00 or less.680 676 M.G.L. ch. 136, § 5. 677 M.G.L. ch. 136, § 7. 678 Id. 679 M. G. L. ch. 136, § 6 (50), as amended through St. 2018, c. 121, §§ 5-8. 680 Id.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTkwMTQ4