The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently issued three decisions with significant implications for employers in the commonwealth, holding that (1) when an employer pays wages to an employee after the deadlines provided in the Massachusetts Wage Act, the proper measure of damages is three times the amount of late wages, even if paid before “the bringing” of a complaint; (2) the three-prong “ABC test” set forth in the independent contractor law applies to the relationship between a franchisor and a franchisee; and (3) the remedies under the Massachusetts Wage Act are not available when an employee’s claim for overtime wages rests only on the Fair Labor Standards Act.
REUTER V. CITY OF METHUEN
In a decision issued April 4, 2022, Reuter v. City of Methuen, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that when an employer pays wages after the deadlines provided in the Massachusetts Wage Act, MGL c. 149 (Wage Act or Act), § 148, it is liable for treble (i.e., three times) the amount of late wages—even if it pays the employee before the employee brings a complaint. The Act requires employers to pay “treble damages, as liquidated damages, for any lost wages and other benefits” to aggrieved employees. While the SJC recognized “that the word ‘lost’ creates some ambiguity” as late wages are not truly “lost,” it nonetheless held that “lost wages” encompass all payments made after the deadlines provided in the Act.
The SJC upended long-standing lower court precedent,...
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