Mass. bill would raise overtime salary threshold, codify exempt-employee definitions

BOSTON — A bill filed in the Massachusetts Senate on Jan. 17, 2025, would raise the salary threshold that determines which salaried workers are exempt from overtime pay and would codify definitions for “executive,” “administrative” and “professional” employees in chapter 151 of the General Laws. The measure was presented by Senator Paul R. Feeney and lists Senator Jason M. Lewis as a petitioner.

If enacted, the bill would insert a new Section 1C into Chapter 151 to define exempt employees and to set a schedule of weekly salary thresholds. The bill sets the overtime threshold at $844 per week on its effective date, $1,211.53 per week beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and $1,403.84 per week beginning Jan. 1, 2027. Beginning Jan. 1, 2028, and each Jan. 1 thereafter, the weekly threshold would be no less than the higher of: (1) the weekly earnings for a 40-hour week at two times the state minimum wage under section 1 of chapter 151, or (2) the previous year’s threshold increased by the percentage change, if any, in the second quartile of usual weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers as published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The bill would make the overtime threshold the highest of three measures: the statutory overtime threshold rate in the bill, any rate the Massachusetts commissioner of labor establishes by regulation, or the annualized rate set by the U.S. Department of Labor under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The measure also defines “salary basis” and states that to meet the primary-duty test an employee must devote more than 50% of work time to the tasks comprising that duty.

The proposed statutory definitions include: a “bona fide executive employee” who is paid at or above the threshold, primarily manages the enterprise or a recognized department, customarily directs two or more employees, and has authority to hire or fire or whose recommendations on personnel decisions are given particular weight; an “administrative employee” who is paid at or above the threshold, performs nonmanual office work directly related to management or general business operations, and exercises discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance; and a “professional employee” who is paid at or above the threshold and whose primary duty requires advanced knowledge usually acquired by prolonged specialized instruction or work requiring invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized creative field.

The bill reiterates standard salary-basis rules: exempt employees must receive the full salary for any week in which they perform any work and need not be paid for a week in which they perform no work; deductions for employer-operating reasons that reduce predetermined compensation are disallowed if the employee is ready, willing and able to work. The bill also authorizes the commissioner of labor to set a regulatory rate that could exceed the statutory floor and specifies that the department will publish the annual threshold.

The text was filed as Senate No. 1324 and referred to the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. The measure, as filed, is a petition and has not been enacted. Its next steps would follow the normal legislative process in the General Court, including committee review, hearings, and possible amendments.

Why it matters: The proposal would raise the income level at which salaried employees are automatically considered exempt from overtime pay and would place the definitions and indexing schedule into state statute, which could change how employers classify workers and calculate overtime eligibility if the bill becomes law.