Massachusetts General Laws - Minimum Fair Wages - Chapter 151, Section 20 - Massachusetts Attorney Resources

Massachusetts General Laws - Minimum Fair Wages - Chapter 151, Section 20

Payment of less than minimum fair wage; recovery of deficiency; unclaimed award; deposit of funds.

Section 20. If any person is paid by an employer less than the minimum fair wage to which such person is entitled under or by virtue of a minimum fair wage regulation, or less than one dollar and eighty-five cents per hour in any manufacturing occupation or in any other occupation not covered by a minimum fair wage regulation; such person may recover in a civil action three times the full amount of such minimum wage less any amount actually paid to him or her by the employer, together with costs and such reasonable attorney’s fees as may be allowed by the court, and any agreement between such person and the employer to work for less than such wage shall be no defence in such action. At the request of any employee paid less than the minimum wage to which he or she is entitled the attorney general may take an assignment of such wage claim in trust for the assigning employee and may bring any legal action necessary to collect such claim, and the employer shall be required to pay the costs and such reasonable attorney’s fees as may be allowed by the court. The attorney general shall not be required to pay a filing fee in connection with any such action.

In any action or administrative proceeding by an employee or the commissioner instituted upon such a wage claim in which the employee prevails and the commissioner thereafter in possession of the resulting award is unable after a reasonable search to locate the employee or to identify and locate the employee’s successor in interest, the commissioner shall, upon expiration of one year from the date of said award, deposit the funds from any such award, less costs and reasonable attorney’s fees where applicable, in the General Fund.

Last modified: March 19, 2006