Earned sick time, PFML and leave for Massachusetts restaurants

At least one hour for every 30 hours worked, overtime included, up to 40 hours a year. Part-time, seasonal and temporary staff earn it too. Up to 40 unused hours carry over, but nobody can use more than 40 hours in a year.

Employers with 11 or more employees must pay for sick time; smaller employers must provide it but can leave it unpaid. Count every full-time, part-time, seasonal and temporary employee on payroll in each pay period of the prior year, then divide by the number of pay periods.

At least the full $15.00 minimum wage for each sick hour, not the $6.75 service rate. Employees are not owed the tips they might have earned during the absence.

Accrual starts on the first day of work, and use can start on the 90th calendar day after it, however many days the person worked in between. Employers may allow earlier use.

One hour. Beyond the first hour, employees use it in hourly increments or in the smallest increment your payroll system uses for other absences. Sick time can only be used for hours the employee was scheduled to work.

The employee's own illness, injury, medical condition or preventive care; the same needs for a child, spouse, parent or spouse's parent; routine medical appointments; and dealing with domestic violence. Since November 21, 2024, it also covers the employee's or spouse's health needs after a pregnancy loss or a failed adoption, surrogacy or assisted reproduction.

For foreseeable absences, a written policy can require up to seven days' notice; for sudden illness, only reasonable notice. You can ask for documentation when the absence runs more than 24 consecutive scheduled hours or three consecutive scheduled workdays, falls in the two weeks before someone's last day, or follows four unforeseeable, undocumented absences within three months.

A shift swap or make-up shift in the same or next pay period is allowed only if both of you agree. You can never require the employee to make up the hours or to find their own replacement.

Yes, all of it if they return within four months. After four to 12 months, it comes back only if they had 10 or more hours banked. A rehire within 12 months also keeps credit toward the 90-day waiting period.

Yes, if at least 40 hours of it can be used for every sick-time purpose, under the same notice and documentation limits and job protection, paid at the same rate, and accruing at least one hour per 30 worked. If you front-load 40 or more hours at the start of the year, you do not need to track accrual or allow carryover.

Post the Attorney General's Earned Sick Time notice of employee rights, and either give each worker a copy or include your sick time policy in a handbook.

For 2026 the total is 0.88% of eligible wages. With 25 or more covered individuals, the employer pays at least 0.42% and can withhold up to 0.46% from employees. With fewer than 25, the rate is 0.46%, and all of it can come from employees.

Chapter 101 of the Acts of 2026 moves the employer share from medical leave to family leave from January 1, 2027. For employers with 25 or more covered individuals, the employer pays 60% of the family contribution and up to 100% of the medical contribution can be withheld from employees. The 2027 total rate is set by the state by October 1, 2026.

You still send the full contribution, and it is up to you whether and how to recover the employee's share. Cash tips count as PFML wages once an employee reports $20 or more in a month.

Up to 12 weeks of family leave, up to 20 weeks of medical leave, and no more than 26 weeks combined in a benefit year. The maximum weekly benefit for benefit years starting in 2026 is $1,230.39.

Yes. They return to the same or an equivalent job with the same pay, benefits and seniority, and any negative change during leave or in the six months after it is presumed to be retaliation. Employees should give at least 30 days' notice when they can.

Display the state PFML workplace poster, and give each new employee a written notice within 30 days of their start date, in English and in the primary language of five or more workers where the state provides a translation.

Yes, with an approved exemption from the Department of Family and Medical Leave, if the private or self-funded plan is at least as generous as the state program. Exempt employers still have to follow the PFML law.

Yes, with six or more employees. The Massachusetts Parental Leave Act gives eight weeks of job-protected leave for the birth or adoption of a child, after a probationary period of up to three months or three months of full-time work.

Only if you had 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks this year or last. An eligible employee has worked for you 12 months and 1,250 hours, at a site with 50 or more employees within 75 miles, and gets up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave.

Both apply at 50 or more employees. Small Necessities Leave gives up to 24 hours of unpaid leave a year for a child's school activities or medical appointments or an elderly relative's care appointments. Domestic violence leave gives up to 15 days a year, paid or unpaid, when the employee or a family member is a victim.

Yes, regular wages for the first three days, or any part of them, of jury service. That covers part-time and casual staff whose hours can be worked out from a schedule or their pattern over the prior three months.

The voting-leave law covers "mercantile" establishments, a term Massachusetts law defines to include restaurants. An employee who asks ahead must be allowed off during the first two hours after the polls open, and the time does not have to be paid.

Yes. Federal law requires reasonable break time and a private space other than a bathroom for up to a year after the child's birth, and Massachusetts treats lactation as a condition needing reasonable accommodation, without a doctor's note.

Under federal USERRA, employees who leave for uniformed service generally have the right to be reemployed, with up to five years of cumulative service with that employer, among other conditions.

Neither is required by Massachusetts or federal law. But once you offer paid vacation, it counts as wages: earned, unused vacation must be paid when someone leaves, and a use-it-or-lose-it policy is allowed only with clear advance notice and a real chance to use the time.