The Massachusetts Employment Law Guide

Employers who wish to enforce policies that regulate employees’ length of hair or the way in which facial hair is groomed must make exceptions to those policies to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs, unless doing so would pose an undue hardship. Employers must show concrete, tangible harm to the business; potential or expected losses will not suffice.

Employers may pay their employees weekly or biweekly. If an employer changes from paying wages weekly to biweekly, they must provide individual notices to employees 90 days in advance.

Salaried employees may be paid weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or, if the employee requests, monthly.

Employees who work five or six days a week must be paid within six days of the end of the pay period. All other employees may be paid within seven days of the end of the pay period.

Employers who run background checks should ensure they’re following the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which are available here.

Job applications must include a statement that their work history may include any verified work performed on a volunteer basis.

Massachusetts requires that employers conduct background checks on the following applicants, employees, or volunteers: Those who provide services to elderly or disabled people in a home or a community-based setting, a long-term care facility, an assisted living residence, or a continuing care facility; Those who have direct or indirect contact with elderly or disabled people; Those who have access to the files of elderly or disabled people; Those who may have direct and unmonitored contact with firearms, shotguns, or rifles; and those working at a children’s camp.

Employers who conduct five or more criminal background checks per year must also do the following: Notify the applicant of the possibility for adverse decision based on the applicant’s criminal history; Give the applicant a copy of the background check, along with the employer’s policy on the use of that information; Provide the applicant with information on the procedures for correcting a criminal record.

To obtain a credit check on applicants or employees, employers must enter into an agreement with the consumer reporting agency that they have provided written notice to the applicant or employee that they will request a credit report. For current employees, notice in an employee manual is sufficient.

If the employer decides not to hire an applicant or to discharge an employee because of their credit report, they must notify them in writing within 10 business days of making their decision. The notice must comply with the following requirements: Be in a clear and conspicuous format; Be at least 10-point font; Contain the name, address, and toll-free phone number of the credit reporting agency that provided the report; Inform the applicant or employee of their rights.

Employers may not ask about criminal records on initial employment applications.

When applicants have advanced to the interview stage, they may be asked about their criminal history with the additional restrictions: Employers may not ask about arrests or detention that did not lead to conviction. Employers may not ask about first-time convictions for drunkenness, simple assault, speeding, minor traffic violations, affray, or disturbing the peace. Employers may not ask about misdemeanor convictions that are at least five years old, unless the applicant has another conviction in the last five years.

An employer that asks about criminal history must include a statement that an applicant whose record has been sealed is entitled to answer that they have no criminal record.

If an employer is in possession of information about the applicant’s criminal history at the time an inquiry is made, regardless of the source, the applicant must be provided with a copy of that information.

COBRA is a federal law that allows many employees to continue their health insurance benefits after their employment ends. Because federal COBRA only applies to employers that have 20 or more employees, many states have adopted their own versions of the law, which are known as “mini-COBRAs.” Massachusetts’s mini-COBRA allows employees to continue their coverage for up to 18 months or, under certain circumstances, up to 36 months.

Massachusetts requires that all employers with six or more employees distribute a sexual harassment policy that includes very specific information, including who to contact with complaints within the organization, and the contact information for government agencies that may be contacted about harassment.

Employers may not listen to or record their employees’ phone calls unless they have a business necessity for doing so. If the conversation is personal, the employer must stop listening immediately.

An employer who wants to treat someone as an independent contractor rather than an employee has to show that the work:

1. is done without the direction and control of the employer; and
2. is performed outside the usual course of the employer’s business; and
3. is done by someone who has their own, independent business or trade doing that kind of work.

Get our Compliance Calendar to stay on top of deadlines throughout the year: View it on your computer. Click + Google Calendar in the lower right to add it to your Google Calendar and subscribe to all updates. You can also download a calendar (.ics) file that you can import into iCal or Outlook, or download a PDF to your computer. 

View the resources available to Massachusetts business owners and workers impacted by the coronavirus outbreak in our state-by-state COVID-19 Resource Center.