Massachusetts Law About Paid Time Off (PTO)
Unlocking Massachusetts PTO Laws: Vacation, Sick Leave, and MorePaid Time Off (PTO) encompasses vacation days, paid sick leave, and personal days—an essential aspect of the modern workforce. Whether your employer bundles them or allows individual accrual, understanding their differences under Massachusetts law is crucial, especially regarding what employers are legally obligated to provide and what must be paid out upon employment termination.
Vacation TimeWhile employers are not mandated to offer vacation time, it's considered part of the compensation package, falling under the Massachusetts Wage Act.
To safeguard your rights, monitor how it accrues and whether it rolls over from year to year. Typically, vacation accrues monthly at 1/12 increments, with some employers preventing rollovers into the next year. Understanding these policies can impact whether you receive owed vacation pay at termination. Paid Sick TimeMassachusetts now mandates sick time for all employees, be it part-time or full-time. The minimum requirement is one hour for every 30 hours worked or 40 hours annually. Importantly, this is only paid if your workplace employs 11 or more individuals, and unused sick days need not be paid out upon termination.
Combined PTO PoliciesMany employers consolidate all paid time off into a single PTO "bank." Instead of distinguishing sick leave and vacation, employees have a total allotment for both. If not specified, employers may owe all unused PTO at termination, even if some was intended for sick leave.
Unlimited Paid Time Off and Wage and Hour LawsUnlimited PTO policies are gaining traction, allowing employees to take as much time off as needed. However, this often results in employees taking less vacation due to uncertainty about acceptable limits.
It also complicates payout during termination, as employers argue no payout is needed since no days have been "accrued." Terminated employees, on the other hand, argue that employers should not be allowed to use unlimited vacation as a way of avoiding payout obligations on termination. There is no clear answer to this question yet, but it illustrates how these policies can create complexity at the end of employment. PTO Payout at Termination: What You Should DoIf you leave your job, whether voluntarily or not, and are uncertain about being fully compensated, follow these steps before seeking legal counsel:
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Meet Our Employment Lawyers
Emily Smith-Lee is the owner and founder of slnlaw. She is a 1996 graduate of Boston College Law School. She was previously a partner at the Boston office of a large international firm, where she worked for thirteen years before starting the firm that became slnlaw in 2009. She has been recognized as a Massachusetts Superlawyer each year since 2013, and in 2018 earned recognition as one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly's Lawyers of the Year. She has written a book on employment law: Rules of the Road, What You Need to Know About Employment Laws in Massachusetts, and helped thousands of clients on both the employee and employer side with issues relating to wage and hour laws, including overtime pay, late or unpaid wages or commissions, employee misclassification, and retaliation against employees asserting rights under the wage and hour laws.
Rebecca Rogers: Rebecca is a 2006 graduate of Boston College Law School, and has worked with slnlaw since 2013. She previously worked as an intellectual property litigation attorney for Fish & Richardson in Boston, Massachusetts, and clerked for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Rebecca has helped clients with wage and hour disputes, including employee misclassification, late or unpaid wages or commissions, retaliation under the Wage Act, and advice to both employees and employers about wage and hour law compliance.
Jenna Ordway: Jenna is a 2013 graduate of Quinnipiac Law School, and also earned an LLM in Taxation from Boston University in 2015. She has been affiliated with slnlaw since 2011, first as a law clerk and then as an attorney. Jenna has been recognized since 2019 as a "Rising Star" by Massachusetts Superlawyers. Jenna has helped clients assess their rights under the wage and hour laws, including employee misclassification, untimely payment of final wages, late or unpaid commissions, retaliation, and advice to small business owners about wage and hour law compliance.
Elijah Bresley: Eli is a 2014 graduate of Seton Hall Law school, and has worked with slnlaw since 2020. He previously worked for a boutique employment law firm outside of Boston, and then for the Labor and Employment department of a large Boston firm. He also spent a year clerking for the judges of the Superior Court in Hartford, Connecticut. Eli has helped clients with wage and hour claims, including late or unpaid commissions, retaliation, employee misclassification, and overtime, and litigated these claims in state and federal courts. He also advises employers about employment policies and wage and hour compliance.
Sharleen Tinnin: Sharleen is a 2010 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, and has been with slnlaw since 2023. Prior to joining slnlaw, she worked with King, Tilden, McEttrick & Brink, P.C. on complex civil litigation matters. She previously worked for the United States Department of Justice, and received an "Excellence in Justice" award in 2017. Sharleen has helped clients with multiple wage and hour issues, including retaliation, misclassification, and late or unpaid wages or commissions, and litigated these claims in state and federal courts.
How We Can Help
If an employer withholds your final vacation pay, it’s a serious offense that not only breaks the law but causes stress and anxiety for you. This is why the laws are so strict, and impose such severe penalties on employers. The law recognizes that all workers depend on their wages to live their own lives, pay their bills, and take care of their families.
We can help you protect those rights and recover the money that is owed to you. You can use the button below to schedule a call back from a member of our team, or give us a call at 781-784-2322.
We can help you protect those rights and recover the money that is owed to you. You can use the button below to schedule a call back from a member of our team, or give us a call at 781-784-2322.
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