MA · 4 rules · reviewed 2026-05
Massachusetts scheduling laws
Massachusetts has the strongest paid-sick-time law in the Northeast and a long history of premium-pay rules (the historical 'Blue Laws' for Sunday work were phased out by 2023). Key scheduling-impacting rule today is the Earned Sick Time Law.
This is a reference, not legal advice. Every rule below links to its primary source — a statute, an ordinance, or the enforcing agency — so you can read the law rather than a summary of a summary. Consult counsel before relying on any of it.
3 of these 4 rules apply regardless of industry; 1 bind only certain sectors, and each one says which. Most US predictive-scheduling law is municipal, so where a rule comes from a city ordinance its name says so — a company can easily have one location covered and two not.
Earned Sick Time Law
M.G.L. c.149 §148CAll employees accrue 1 hour of sick time per 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year. Employers with 11+ employees pay; smaller employers can offer unpaid.
In Weekwright: Time-off requests with the Sick type flow into the conflict detector; the audit log captures usage for accrual reporting.
Sunday and holiday premium pay (historical)
M.G.L. c.136 §6Massachusetts's 'Blue Laws' historically required time-and-a-half on Sundays and certain holidays for retail. The premium was phased out by January 2023; today it's regular pay, but check older contracts and CBAs that may still reference it.
Applies to:Retail
In Weekwright: Per-position hourly rates support multiple rate variants. If you've negotiated CBA-locked Sunday premiums, encode them once in the position config — every Sunday shift surfaces the higher rate.
Equal Pay Act
M.G.L. c.149 §105AMassachusetts pay-equity law requires equal pay for 'comparable work' regardless of gender. Schedule visibility and shift-distribution analytics are increasingly used in pay-equity audits.
In Weekwright: Multi-week trend analytics (analyze_scheduling_trends) flags fairness signals — weekend / late-shift skew per member, shift-count disparity between roles. Foundation for an equal-pay audit, not a substitute.
Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights
M.G.L. c.149 §190Specific to in-home domestic workers (caregivers, housekeepers): mandatory rest periods, written work agreements, overtime protections.
In Weekwright: Niche use case — Weekwright is built for shift-based teams, not in-home domestic worker arrangements. If you operate a domestic-staffing agency, the basic features still help; if you employ a single in-home worker, simpler tools may fit better.
Primary sources
Read the law itself. These are the statutes, ordinances and agencies the rules above are taken from.
Massachusetts by industry
The same statutes read for one vertical, with the scheduling patterns that vertical actually runs.
Other states
Again, because it matters: this is not legal advice. It is a reading aid over primary sources, maintained by a software company rather than a law firm. It surfaces obvious gaps so you can act on them — it does not tell you whether a specific ordinance applies to your specific business. Consult counsel for that. Found something out of date? hello@weekwright.com — a correction to a primary source is welcome from anyone, customer or not.
Rules your Massachusetts schedule actually checks.
Weekwright enforces the baseline for where each shift happens, before you publish. Free for a single location, up to 20 employees.