When Planning to Terminate a Massachusetts Employee, Always Carefully Plan the Final Payment When an employment relationship goes wrong and an employer is faced with terminating an employee, the employer has to evaluate a...more
Terminating employees can be a daunting task. Failing to follow your state or local rules when terminating an employee can make the task exponentially more difficult and expensive. When a business plans on firing or laying...more
On March 28, 2024, in Sutton v. Jordan’s Furniture, Inc., the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) upheld a Massachusetts Superior Court decision finding the furniture retailer’s commission-based compensation scheme...more
For Colorado employers of all sizes, the last five years have proven the truth of the adage that “the only constant is change.” Starting in 2019 with the signing of a ground-breaking pay transparency law, the Equal Pay for...more
On January 31, 2024, a Massachusetts trial court dismissed a claim against the Boston Globe alleging that the newspaper violated the commonwealth’s Wage Act by failing to pay an executive’s 2020 profit-share which the...more
In Klauber v. VMWare, the First Circuit upheld an employer’s use of a provision in its compensation plan that allowed it to modify commissions on certain large or atypical sales. These “windfall” clauses are common in sales...more
In a departure from earlier court decisions, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has imposed additional potential liability on employers for wage-and-hour compliance. In Reuter v. City of Methuen, the SJC explained...more
On April 14, 2022, the SJC held that where employees’ sole claims for overtime wages rest on the employer’s liability under the FLSA, employees are limited to the remedies provided under the FLSA, and may not receive treble...more
Overturning nearly 20 years of lower-court precedent, on April 4, 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued a landmark decision holding that an employer is strictly liable for treble damages for any late...more
On April 4, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court handed employees there yet another victory in Reuter v. City of Methuen, holding that they are automatically entitled to triple damages for any late payment of final wages...more
On April 4, 2022, in Reuter v. City of Methuen, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that employers are strictly liable for treble damages for making late wage payments, even when an employee has not yet filed...more
Employers take note: the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) ruled this week for an employee seeking treble damages for untimely paid wages under the Massachusetts Wage Act (“Wage Act”), even though the employer had...more
On April 4, 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) dispelled the notion that employers can avoid triple liability for late payment of wages under the Massachusetts Wage Act, M.G.L. c. 149, § 148 (“Wage Act”),...more
On June 10, 2021, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a plaintiff’s lawsuit alleging, among other things, failure to pay wages under the Massachusetts Wage Act. In Rose v. RTN Federal Credit Union, the...more
In Galloway v. SimpliSafe, a putative class action of customer support representatives sued their employer, SimpliSafe, Inc., alleging various Massachusetts Wage Act violations, including failure to pay the plaintiffs “Sunday...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A Massachusetts trial court judge ruled that employees were entitled to premium pay for work on Sundays at a call center, under a Massachusetts statute governing Sunday and holiday work at a retail “store...more
In early May, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that 100% commission-based inside salespersons are entitled to separate, additional overtime pay and premium pay for Sunday work. The decision, Sullivan v. Sleepy’s...more
In Lukas v. Unidine Corp., et al., Judge Davis held that, under the Massachusetts Wage Act, GL c. 149, § 148, employee commissions can be conditioned on receipt of customer payments on which the commissions are based. Judge...more
Many wage laws and jurisdictions give deference to employment agreements or even past employer practices when determining when commissions are "earned" by an employee and must be "paid" by an employer. As a recent decision...more
The Colorado Supreme Court recently clarified the applicable statute of limitations for wage claims in the State of Colorado. In Hernandez v. Ray Domenico Farms, Inc., No. No. 17SA77, 2018 WL 1146468 (Colo. Mar. 5, 2018)...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A recent decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court limits the scope of the Wage Act to exclude sick time payments and potentially other types of contingent compensation. ...more
On January 29th, Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court held that accrued, unused sick time does not count as wages under state employment law, as employment lawyers in Massachusetts had previously anticipated....more