On April 14, 2022, in Devaney v. Zucchini Gold, LLC, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ruled that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) preempts state remedies under the Massachusetts Wage Act (Wage Act) where the employees’ overtime claim arose solely under the FLSA. Under those circumstances, the employee may not recover treble damages and other Wage Act remedies for the failure to pay overtime wages. With this ruling, the SJC rejected several lower court decisions that had allowed Wage Act remedies for FLSA violations.
The statute can be found here. The opinion can be read here.
The question before the SJC was whether the FLSA’s comprehensive remedial scheme for overtime pay violations precludes employees from alternatively pursuing remedies under the Wage Act, where Massachusetts law does not require overtime to be paid. Employees who work in restaurants, hotels, hospitals, or gasoline stations are exempt from the overtime requirements of Massachusetts law; these exemptions do not exist under the FLSA.
Though the Wage Act and the FLSA bear similarities, they differ in important respects. The Wage Act is generally more favorable for workers than the FLSA. For example, employers who violate the Wage Act are strictly liable and are not allowed to raise a “good faith” defense as with the FLSA. Also, employees are entitled to a mandatory award of treble damages for any lost wages, whereas the FLSA...
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