Massachusetts Overtime Pay Laws & Calculator

The rules

Source: 29 U.S.C. § 207 (federal FLSA)

• Overtime applies after 40 hours in a single workweek, paid at 1.5x your regular hourly rate.
• Massachusetts has no separate state-law daily-overtime or double-time requirement -- only the weekly threshold above applies.

Worked example

Take a non-exempt hourly employee in Massachusetts earning $20.00/hour who works 45 hours in one workweek (nine hours a day, Monday through Friday). Applying Massachusetts's rules above:

Use the full calculator to plug in your own rate, hours, and pay period — including estimated federal and Massachusetts tax withholding.

Massachusetts minimum wage and exempt-salary rules

Minimum wage

$15.00/hour, unchanged since January 1, 2023. (Mass.gov Minimum Wage Program)

Tipped employees

Employers may pay tipped employees a $6.75/hour base service rate if the worker customarily receives more than $20/month in tips, the employer gave notice of the tip credit, and tips plus $6.75 add up to at least $15.00 for every hour of that shift -- checked shift by shift, not averaged over a pay period. If any shift falls short, the employer must make up the difference for that shift. (Mass.gov Minimum Wage Program)

Exempt (salaried) employee salary threshold

Massachusetts uses the federal salary threshold ($684/week, $35,568/year) for the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions -- it hasn't set its own higher figure. (Mass.gov Minimum Wage Program)

Common mistake: Massachusetts follows the federal 40-hour weekly standard with no separate daily-overtime rule, so the most common mistake here is the general biweekly one: averaging hours across a two-week pay period instead of calculating overtime for each workweek separately. See the biweekly overtime calculator below.

Example: biweekly confusion in Massachusetts

Same hourly rate ($20.00/hour), 35 hours in week 1 and 45 hours in week 2 — 80 hours total either way:

Week 2 still owes 5 overtime hours even though the two-week total is a plain 80 hours — overtime in Massachusetts is calculated per workweek, not by averaging the pay period. See the biweekly overtime calculator for more examples.

Example: 3x12 vs. 4x12 schedules in Massachusetts

Two common 12-hour-shift schedules, same $20.00/hour rate:

Want to compare your own rate, days, and shift differential? Use the schedule comparison tool.

Massachusetts-specific FAQ

Is overtime taxed differently in Massachusetts?

No -- overtime pay isn't taxed at a different rate than your regular wages. It's simply added to your gross pay for that period and withheld the same way as any other pay. Massachusetts taxes wage income on a bracketed schedule topping out at 9% (Tax Foundation, 2026 State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets); overtime pay is withheld the same as any other wages, based on your total taxable pay for the period.

Who this applies to

• This estimate assumes a non-exempt hourly employee. Executive, administrative, professional, and certain other roles may be exempt from overtime entirely under state and federal law.

This is an estimate for general informational purposes only, not legal, tax, or payroll advice. For your specific situation, consult your employer's payroll department, a licensed tax professional, or Massachusetts's labor department.