Massachusetts restaurant HR & payroll answers
General information about Massachusetts and federal rules, checked against the official sources linked under each answer on September 24, 2026. It is not legal or tax advice.
Only when all of these are true: you told the employee about the rule in writing, they customarily receive more than $20 a month in tips, they keep all their tips or receive them through a lawful tip pool, and the $6.75 plus their tips reaches at least $15.00 an hour. If any condition fails, you pay the full $15.00.
Sources: 454 CMR 27.00: Minimum wage · M.G.L. c.151 §7 · Checked
Shift by shift. Since January 1, 2019, the employer must compare the service rate plus tips against the minimum wage at the end of each shift, and add any shortfall to the next paycheck. A busy Saturday cannot average out a slow Tuesday.
For example, a five-hour shift with $30 in tips earns $33.75 at the service rate plus $30, or $63.75. The shift needs $75.00, so the employer owes $11.25 for that shift, whatever the server made on other nights. The tipped-payroll workflow shows how to build this check into each pay run.
Source: Mass.gov: Pay and recordkeeping · Checked
No. A new hire who receives no tips during training is not a tipped employee yet, so those hours are paid at the full $15.00. What your other servers make in tips does not count toward the trainee.
Sources: DLS opinion letter: service rate during training · DLS: Topical outline of minimum wage and overtime law · Checked
No. The Department of Labor Standards says hours a tipped employee spends on non-tipped work, such as kitchen prep or cleaning, must be paid at least the full $15.00, and tips earned during serving hours cannot be used to cover them.
In the Department's example, an employee preps for one hour, serves for six and cleans for one. The service rate can apply to the six serving hours only; the other two hours are paid at least $15.00 even if the server's tips were high. The Department treats as non-tipped work anything that would not qualify someone for the tip pool. It has not drawn a line for small tasks during service, such as restocking or rolling silverware, so track side work separately if in doubt.
Source: DLS opinion letter MW-2025-11-017 (tipped and non-tipped work) · Checked
The current federal regulation no longer contains an 80/20 rule, and it doesn't matter much in Massachusetts anyway: the state's stricter position, that non-tipped work is paid the full $15.00, governs. When state and federal rules differ, the rule more protective of employees applies.
Sources: 29 CFR 531.56 (dual jobs) · U.S. DOL Fact Sheet #15: Tipped employees · DLS opinion letter MW-2025-11-017 (tipped and non-tipped work) · Checked
Only wait staff, service bartenders and service employees. Wait staff means people who serve food or drink directly to customers or clear their tables, including bussers and counter staff in quick-service restaurants, and who have no managerial responsibility that day.
A service bartender is one who makes drinks that other employees serve. Tip pools are legal, and the employer may run the pool and keep records of it. The law does not list individual job titles such as host or food runner, so apply the test above to what each person actually does, and ask counsel about roles that sit on the line.
Sources: M.G.L. c.149 §152A (Tips Act) · Attorney General's advisory on tips (rev. 2026) · Checked
No. Kitchen staff do not serve customers directly, so under the Massachusetts Tips Act they cannot receive tips or service-charge money. The narrow exception is counter staff in a quick-service restaurant who prepare or serve food as part of a counter team.
If you want to reward the kitchen, pay them more, or charge customers a clearly disclosed house or kitchen-appreciation fee that is not a tip (see [house fees](#service-charge-vs-house-fee) below). Do not take the money from tips.
Sources: Attorney General's advisory on tips (rev. 2026) · M.G.L. c.149 §152A (Tips Act) · Checked
No. Federal rules allow a pool that includes cooks and dishwashers when no tip credit is taken, but the Massachusetts Tips Act bars any pool that sends tips to anyone other than wait staff, service bartenders or service employees, whatever their hourly wage.
Because the state rule is more protective, it is the one Massachusetts restaurants must follow.
Sources: 29 CFR 531.54 (tip pooling) · M.G.L. c.149 §152A (Tips Act) · U.S. DOL Fact Sheet #15: Tipped employees · Checked
Owners never can. A manager or supervisor cannot share on any day they have managerial responsibility, even if they also served tables. The Attorney General names shift supervisors, assistant managers, banquet captains and many maître d's.
Managerial responsibility includes scheduling, supervising, assigning servers to sections, and making or influencing hiring decisions. In June 2025 the Attorney General cited a Boston restaurant about $1.8 million for letting captains with managerial duties share the pool.
Sources: Attorney General's advisory on tips (rev. 2026) · Mass.gov: Pay and recordkeeping · AG press release: $1.8M tip-pool citation (June 2025) · Checked
The Tips Act says by the end of the same business day, and never later than the normal Wage Act payday. The Attorney General's Fair Labor Division treats tips as paid on time if they are paid by the end of the pay period in which they were earned.
Treat same-day payout as the legal default and the pay-period position as an enforcement practice, not a rule written into the law.
Sources: M.G.L. c.149 §152A (Tips Act) · Attorney General's advisory on tips (rev. 2026) · Checked
Yes. If you require staff to stay after their shift to count and distribute tips, that time is working time and must be paid.
Source: DLS opinion letter MW-2010-02 (counting tips) · Checked
A service charge is any fee a customer would reasonably expect to go to the staff, including anything called a gratuity, a tip or a vague "service fee", and all of it must go to the wait staff, service bartenders or service employees who provided the service. A house, administrative or kitchen fee can be kept by the business or shared with the kitchen, but only if you clearly tell customers it is not a tip.
Under the Attorney General's fee rule, the nature, purpose and amount of a house fee must be described clearly and conspicuously on the menu, bill or receipt, and it must be evident that the fee will not go to servers or bartenders.
Sources: Attorney General's advisory on tips (rev. 2026) · M.G.L. c.149 §152A (Tips Act) · Checked
The Attorney General's fee rule, in force since September 2, 2025, requires the total price, including mandatory fees, to be shown clearly and more prominently than other pricing, from the first time a price is presented. A mandatory house or kitchen fee added only at the end of the bill is a compliance risk.
This is a consumer-protection rule, not a wage rule, and the Tips Act disclosure rules apply on top of it. Have counsel look at how your menu and bill show any fee.
Sources: 940 CMR 38.00: Unfair and deceptive fees · AG guidance on 940 CMR 38.00 · Checked
Yes. The Attorney General's guidance allows a mandatory service charge based on party size, as long as all of it goes to wait staff, service employees or service bartenders, and when it applies is clearly disclosed wherever prices appear. It may be shown as a percentage.
Because it is a service charge, none of it can go to managers, owners or the kitchen. It is also not a qualified tip for the federal no-tax-on-tips deduction, since the customer cannot remove it.
Sources: AG guidance on 940 CMR 38.00 · M.G.L. c.149 §152A (Tips Act) · IRS: Final regulations on tipped occupations (IR-2026-49) · Checked
It cannot replace the wage. You can pay the $6.75 service rate and count the service charge toward the gap up to $15.00, if the employee qualifies for the service rate, or pay the full $15.00. Either way, the whole service charge still goes to the servers and bartenders.
Source: DLS: Topical outline of minimum wage and overtime law · Checked
The Massachusetts Tips Act bars employers from taking any payment or deduction from a tip, and it defines a tip to include amounts added by a credit card customer. Federal law allows a proportional card-fee deduction, but Massachusetts gives no such exception, so pass the full card tip to the server.
Sources: M.G.L. c.149 §152A (Tips Act) · U.S. DOL Fact Sheet #15: Tipped employees · Checked
The employer repays the tips with 12% annual interest and can face Attorney General citations of up to $25,000 per violation and criminal penalties. Employees can also sue on their own, and a winning employee is automatically awarded triple damages plus attorney's fees.
The deadline is three years from the violation. An employer cannot contract out of the law, and the managers and officers who run the business can be treated as the employer. More on how claims work is on the wage complaints page.
Sources: M.G.L. c.149 §152A (Tips Act) · M.G.L. c.149 §150 · M.G.L. c.149 §27C (civil citations) · Checked
No. The Attorney General says every Massachusetts rule on the service rate, minimum wage, tip pooling and tip records is unchanged. The federal law is an income tax deduction for workers, and Massachusetts does not adopt it for state income tax.
How the deduction works and what changes on 2026 W-2s is on the payroll taxes page.
Source: Mass.gov: Pay and recordkeeping · Checked
Your restaurant remains the employer of record and approves payroll and employment decisions. BOHO is not a PEO, a staffing agency, or legal counsel. These answers describe the rules; they don’t decide how they apply to your restaurant. Headcount, entity structure and the exact facts of a shift can change the answer, so confirm anything that affects pay with the agency, an employment attorney or your tax adviser.
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Your restaurant remains the employer of record and approves payroll and employment decisions. BOHO is not a PEO, a staffing agency, or legal counsel.