Employers with Massachusetts-based employees know that the Massachusetts Wage Act (the “Wage Act”), with its strict liability and automatic treble damages and attorneys’ fees, is a powerful and exacting statute with which...more
The Massachusetts Wage Act is one of the most punitive wage payment laws in the country. Employers who run afoul of its provisions, even unintentionally, are liable for treble damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs. ...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) – Massachusetts’ highest court – recently held in Devaney v. Zucchini Gold that employees who prove only a violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) are not...more
On April 14, 2022, in Devaney v. Zucchini Gold, LLC, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ruled that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) preempts state remedies...more
On April 4, 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held, in Reuter v. City of Methuen, that employers are strictly liable for treble wages as liquidated damages if they fail to make timely payments upon an employee’s...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) – Massachusetts’ highest court – recently held that under the Massachusetts Wage Act (“Wage Act”) employees are entitled to automatic treble wage damages – that is, three times...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) on April 4, 2022, handed down a decision with major implications for Massachusetts employers accused of wage-and-hour law violations or late payment of wages. In Reuter v. City...more
On April 4, 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) issued its decision in Reuter v. City of Methuen, holding that an employer must pay treble (triple) damages if the organization is late in paying the wages of...more
Rejecting the federal standard for determining whether a party has “prevailed” on his or her claim under the Massachusetts Wage Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, §§ 148 & 150, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has held...more
On February 19, 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ("SJC") held that two employees asserting claims under the Massachusetts Wage Act ("Wage Act") were entitled to recover attorneys' fees from their former employer...more
As has been long anticipated, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently gave a green light to plaintiffs’ attorneys seeking a fee award under the Commonwealth’s Payment of Wages Act, even where an action ends in...more
On February 19, 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) adopted an employee-friendly standard for determining whether a plaintiff is entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees under the Massachusetts Wage Act where...more
On August 12, 2013, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held in Lipsitt v. Plaud that the Massachusetts Wage Act is not intended to be the sole remedy for the recovery of unpaid wages under state law. The Court concluded that...more
In a June 13, 2013 decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court clarified that managers of Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) can be individually liable for violations of the Massachusetts Weekly Payment of Wages Act,...more