Working over 40 hours in a workweek triggers overtime pay for MA employees

Q          Must a nonexempt employee who is scheduled to work 14 hours in a two-week pay period be paid overtime if the employee works more than the 14 hours?

The short answer is no. In Massachusetts, an employer doesn’t have to pay a nonexempt employee overtime salary if the employee doesn’t work more than 40 hours in the workweek. This is because under Massachusetts law, an employee must only be paid overtime (no less than 1.5 times the employee’s regular hourly rate) for all hours worked over 40 if the employee works more than 40 hours in one week. 

One important thing to note is that averaging hours across multiple workweeks is illegal. For example, if an employee works 45 hours in one workweek and 35 hours in the second workweek, totaling 80 work hours in a two-week pay period, the employer must pay five hours in overtime pay for the first workweek.

In the present situation, the nonexempt employee is working 14 hours over the course of two weeks. Even if the nonexempt employee worked all 14 hours in one week, the employee would still only be entitled to their regular rate of pay for those 14 hours worked because the employee didn’t work more than 40 hours in one workweek.