BOSTON (CN) — Massachusetts has some of the most pro-worker overtime rules in the country, and the state Supreme Court appeared poised to expand them even further at oral argument Wednesday.

The court held in 2019 that retail salespeople who are paid straight commission must be paid overtime separately and on top of their regular commission payments; an employer can’t get off the hook just because the commissions end up amounting to more than the hourly minimum wage plus overtime — as is the case under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

In this case, a popular Boston-area furniture retailer called Jordan’s attempted to sidestep this rule. Instead of retroactively allocating commissions, it tracked salespeople’s hours and paid them minimum wage plus overtime as a current “draw” which it later subtracted from commissions they earned.

But a class action on behalf of 250 salespeople claimed that the end result was exactly the same and resulted in a $9.7 million judgment.

“Jordan’s cleverly implemented a system where an employee was limited to sales earnings but Jordan’s cannibalized those earnings” for overtime, plaintiffs’ attorney Brant Casavant told the court. “It’s form over substance … . Jordan’s separately itemized things on paychecks but the harm is still the same.”

“So an employee who worked overtime and an employee who didn’t work overtime would get the exact same pay?” asked Justice Scott Kafker.

“Exactly,” answered Casavant, an attorney with Fair Work PC in...

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