Massachusetts: Pay Frequency and Wage-Payment Lag Requirements

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).