118 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. © 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP As of January 1, 2023 Straight time/no premium Prior to January 1, 2019, neither Massachusetts nor federal law required compounding or “pyramiding” of overtime pay with Sunday premium pay, and an employer was able to reduce or “offset” its obligation to pay Sunday premium pay by the amount of overtime paid to an employee for hours worked in excess of forty during the same workweek.691 However, between January 1, 2019 and January 1, 2023, the higher overtime rate controlled, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) may have required the inclusion of the Sunday premium in the calculation of the employee’s regular rate during that time period.692 In connection with retail employees who are paid on a 100% commission basis, the SJC held that such employees were entitled to a separate and additional amount to satisfy the Sunday premium pay obligation, regardless of the amount of commissions or draws against commissions received.693 5. Legal Holidays Although the Sunday work laws are complex, their complexity pales in comparison to the patchwork of laws governing work on legal holidays. For example, the Massachusetts legislature extended the Sunday closure requirements to some of the statutory holidays, including Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Juneteenth Independence Day (June 18), Independence Day, Labor Day (first Monday in September), Columbus Day (second Monday in October) before noon, and Veterans Day (November 11) before 1 p.m.694 Thus, businesses prohibited from operating on Sunday pursuant to the Massachusetts Blue Laws are also prohibited from operating on these holidays. Conversely, businesses permitted to operate on Sunday typically may stay open on holidays. The provisions regarding voluntariness of work that apply to retail employers operating on Sunday also apply to retail employers operating on these holidays.695 Other holidays have additional requirements unique to retail employers. For example, while New Year’s Day is not subject to the closure requirements, retail employers who operate that day must 691 M.G.L. ch. 151, § 1A. See also Swift v. Autozone, Inc., 441 Mass. 443, 448-50 (2004). If an employer pays holiday pay for a set number of hours to its employees, those hours are not considered to be hours worked for purposes of calculating overtime. See DLS Opinion Letter MW-2002-018 (June 5, 2002). 692 See, e.g., 29 U.S.C. § 207(e)(6) (excluding hours worked at a premium on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays from the employee’s regular rate only if the premium is at least one and one half times the rate for non-overtime hours). 693 Sullivan v. Sleepy’s LLC, 482 Mass. 227, 239 (2019). 694 M.G.L. ch. 136, §§ 13-16. 695 M.G.L. ch. 136, §§ 6(50), 13, 16. As in the case of premium pay for Sunday work, Massachusetts phased out the premium pay requirement for holidays. However, the premium pay rate for New Year’s Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day remained at one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate in 2019 and 2020. A statutory amendment in 2020 extended the phase out of the premium pay requirement to New Year’s Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day, effective January 1, 2021. Effective in 2021, Juneteenth Independence Day was added as a state holiday subject to the Blue Laws, and was also subject to the premium pay phase-out.
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