Pay Frequency and Wage-Payment Lag Requirements in Massachusetts

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Weekly or biweekly is the general rule

M.G.L. c.149, § 148 generally requires employees to be paid weekly or biweekly. For an employee working five or six days in a calendar week, wages must be brought current within six days after the pay period ends. An employee working seven days, and a casual employee whose period is fewer than five days, must be paid within seven days after the relevant period ends.

This is a genuine lag rule in addition to a frequency rule. A biweekly payroll that waits longer than the applicable six- or seven-day deadline is not timely.

Specified employees may use longer schedules

Bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees, and the specified employees whose salaries use a weekly basis or weekly rate for a substantially consistent workweek, may be paid biweekly or semimonthly. The employee may elect monthly payment.

Agricultural workers may be paid monthly. A railroad or parlor/sleeping-car corporation may use an approved less-than-weekly schedule after the statutory hearing and employee-preference findings. These alternatives should not be expanded into a universal monthly option.

Teachers and narrow institutional carveouts

Public and nonpublic school-teacher compensation may be deferred into equal payments across a 12-month period, including July and August after the school year.

The section also contains narrow exclusions for employees of specified publicly supported or charitable hospitals unless the employee requests weekly pay, cooperative-association shareholder-employees unless they request weekly pay, and casual public employees.

Enforcement produces mandatory treble damages

An aggrieved employee files a complaint with the Attorney General, then may bring a private action after 90 days or sooner with written assent. The action must be within three years, subject to the statutory tolling provision. A prevailing employee receives treble damages as liquidated damages for lost wages and other benefits, plus litigation costs and reasonable attorneys' fees.

What trips people up

Semimonthly and monthly payroll are not general employer choices. They depend on the employee classifications, election, or industry provisions stated in § 148.

The unusual 90-day written notice rule is historical in scope: it applies to an employer that was paying weekly on July 1, 1992 before moving those employees to biweekly pay. It is not written as a universal 90-day notice period for every modern payday change.

Commissions enter § 148 only when definitely determined and due and payable. The statute should not be read to force payment of an unascertainable commission before its contractual earning conditions are satisfied.

Common questions

Can a Massachusetts employer pay ordinary employees semimonthly?

Not as a general rule. Ordinary employees are weekly or biweekly; semimonthly is among the alternatives for the classifications specified in § 148.

How soon after a biweekly period are wages due?

Usually within six days after the period ends for an employee working five or six days per week, and within seven days for a seven-day employee.

May an agricultural employee be paid monthly?

Yes. Section 148 expressly permits monthly wage payment for agricultural work.

Statutes and sources

• M.G.L. c.149, § 148. Frequency, lag, classifications, agriculture, teachers, institutional carveouts, and legacy change notice. Official text (accessed July 12, 2026).
• M.G.L. c.149, § 150. Attorney General complaint, private action, three-year period, treble damages, costs, and fees. Official text (accessed July 12, 2026).