Massachusetts “Grand Bargain” Makes Changes to Blue Laws for Retailers

A legislative bargain requires give-and-take from all stakeholders. On June 28, 2018, Massachusetts Governor Baker signed House Bill 4640, “An Act Relative to Minimum Wage, Paid Family Medical Leave, and the Sales Tax Holiday” (the “Act”). This “grand bargain” gradually raises the minimum wage, provides for paid family and medical leave, makes permanent the Commonwealth’s annual tax holiday, and phases out Sunday and holiday premium pay requirements. While Massachusetts employers must now adjust to an increased minimum wage and new paid family medical leave program, retailers with eight or more employees may see those costs mitigated by the gradual elimination of Sunday and holiday premium pay mandates.

Currently, Massachusetts retailers must provide premium pay of 1.5 times the regular hourly rate to non-exempt employees who work on Sundays or certain holidays designated by state law. The holidays covered by the premium pay laws are New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day. The premium pay requirements do not apply to employees who are exempt from overtime pay mandates under Massachusetts law, specifically executive, administrative, and professional employees who earn more than $200 per week.

The Act will reduce, and ultimately remove, Massachusetts’ Blue Law premium pay requirement in accordance with the following schedule:

Though covered employers will no longer be required to offer premium pay for Sunday and holiday work, the other provisions in the Blue Law remain unchanged. As such, retail employers may not require employees to work on Sundays or holidays, nor may employers discriminate or take adverse action against employees who refuse to work such shifts.

The phase out of premium pay is intended to provide relief for retailers; however, it also appears to create a subtle complication that may raise costs for Massachusetts retailers over the next four years. Under federal and state law, employers must pay non-exempt employees one-and-one-half premium pay for all hours worked over 40 in a week. Premium pay for work on Sundays and holidays may be creditable toward overtime compensation, but only if it is at least one-and-a-half times that employee’s “regular rate” of pay for the given workweek.

The “grand bargain” legislation thus reduces premium pay below this one-and-one-half-times threshold, such that it is no longer excluded from the overtime pay calculation, and therefore, the Massachusetts premium pay can no longer be used to satisfy the federal and state overtime pay requirements. As such, if an employee works more than 40 hours in the workweek, and some of those hours fall on a Sunday or qualified holiday, Massachusetts retailers may be required to provide the employee with both (1) the Sunday or holiday premium, and (2) overtime (above and beyond the premium pay already provided). To further complicate matters, the premium pay received for time worked on the Sunday or holiday will need to be incorporated into the employee’s regular rate of pay, which will affect the calculation of the employee’s overtime rate of pay. Note also that employees’ entitlement to decline Sunday/holiday work (and not be retaliated against) stays in effect as part of the grand bargain. It remains to be seen whether this fact, when considered along with the elimination of premium pay, will impact the number of employees willing to work on Sundays/holidays.

While state lawmakers may choose to revise the statute as it pertains to this complication, overall, the elimination of premium pay should still come as a welcome relief to many Massachusetts retailers, especially those directly competing with stores across the border in New Hampshire. Given that the first reduction in pay is set to take effect in a matter of months, covered employers should notify their employees about the reduction, ensure overtime calculations comply with federal and state laws, and confirm payroll systems are updated to reflect these changes.

This post was written with assistance from Eric I. Emanuelson, Jr., a 2018 Summer Associate at Epstein Becker Green.