Pay stub requirements in Massachusetts
Massachusetts writes its pay stub rule as one sentence at the end of a long payment statute: when paying an employee, the employer furnishes a suitable pay slip, check stub or envelope showing the employer name, the employee name, the day, month and year, the number of hours worked, the hourly rate and the amounts of deductions or increases for the pay period. The deadlines around it are tight. Most employees are paid weekly or biweekly within six days of the end of the pay period, and an employee who is discharged has to be paid in full on the day of discharge. The minimum wage has been $15.00 since 2023.
- Pay stub required
- Yes, a pay slip with eight items
- Electronic delivery
- The statute names paper forms only
- Minimum wage (2026)
- $15.00/hour
- Pay frequency
- Weekly or biweekly for most
What Massachusetts law requires
Eight items on a suitable pay slip
An employer, when paying an employee, shall furnish a suitable pay slip, check stub or envelope showing the name of the employer, the name of the employee, the day, month, year, number of hours worked, hourly rate, and the amounts of deductions or increases made for the pay period. The statute lists paper forms and does not describe an electronic equivalent.
SourceWeekly or biweekly, within six days of the period ending
Wages are paid weekly or biweekly, within six days of the end of the pay period for an employee who worked five or six days in a calendar week, or within seven days for an employee who worked seven days. Employees who worked fewer than five days are casual employees and are paid within seven days of the end of that period.
SourceExempt and salaried staff may be paid less often
Employees engaged in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity, and salaried employees paid on a weekly basis for a work week of substantially the same hours, may be paid biweekly or semimonthly unless the employee elects monthly payment. Employees engaged in agricultural work may be paid monthly. In no case may wages stay unpaid more than six days past the end of the pay period in which they were earned.
SourceA discharged employee is paid the same day
An employee discharged from employment shall be paid in full on the day of discharge. An employee who leaves voluntarily is paid on the following regular pay day, or on the following Saturday where there is no regular pay day. Boston has a narrow extension while payroll certification requirements are met.
Source$15.00 an hour, $6.75 for tipped service work
Chapter 151 § 1 presumes any wage under $15.00 per hour to be oppressive and unreasonable, and adds that the state rate can never be less than fifty cents above the federal minimum. The service rate for workers who make more than $20 a month in tips is $6.75, and most agricultural work has its own $8.00 rate.
Source
What this generator calculates for Massachusetts
State withholding for Massachusetts is calculated from the 2026 figures the state publishes, and our test suite holds those figures against the state's own published calculation rather than against arithmetic of ours.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- M.G.L. c. 149 § 148 — Payment of wages
- M.G.L. c. 151 § 1 — Oppressive and unreasonable wages
- Mass.gov — Massachusetts law about minimum wage
Wage and hour law changes. Check the linked source before relying on any figure here, and treat this page as a starting point rather than legal advice.