This summer marks the second year with Juneteenth as a premium pay holiday for Massachusetts retailers. In 2020, as part of a COVID-19-related spending bill, the Massachusetts legislature added Juneteenth National Independence Day (June 19) to the list of premium pay holidays in the Commonwealth’s “Blue Laws.” Juneteenth joined New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day as holidays where retail employers must pay a premium hourly rate to non-exempt employees (until the obligation phases out on January 1, 2023) and cannot require employees to work. What do Massachusetts employers need to remember about this obligation and the Blue Laws generally?
What is Juneteenth National Independence Day?
Juneteenth National Independence Day commemorates the reading of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation by Union General Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, two months after the Confederacy’s surrender ended the Civil War. Over the years, the holiday has spread from Texas throughout the country as an annual celebration of freedom from slavery and of African American culture. Juneteenth is now a federal holiday and forty-nine states and the District of Columbia recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or day of recognition.
What are the Blue Laws?
Dating back to the state’s Puritan founding, Massachusetts has long outlawed “any manner of labor, business or work” on Sundays and certain holidays. Rather than repeal this...
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