Massachusetts: Triple Damages Now Mandated for Wage and Hour Violations
04/17/2008
By Jackson Lewis, SHRM On April 14, 2008, the treble (triple) damages bill (Senate Bill 1059) became law. This new law makes awards of triple damages mandatory for prevailing plaintiffs in civil actions brought pursuant to the Massachusetts wage and hour laws. Under this new law, the triple damage provision applies even to inadvertent violations and does not require any showing that an employer acted willfully. In addition, unlike the equivalent federal law, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the new Massachusetts law does not give courts discretion to award lesser damages if employers are judged to have acted in good faith. The law also states that it is merely a clarification of the existing law, and therefore it applies retroactively to any wage and hour claims currently pending. In limited circumstances, it may be possible for employers to avoid paying triple damages. With regard to some wage-based claims, such as those for a failure to pay wages on a timely basis, a plaintiff is required to file his initial claim with the attorney general’s office. In these cases, it may be possible to argue that an employer who resolves the claim prior to the plaintiff filing a civil action in court should not be subject to the triple damage penalty. However, with regard to other claims, such as claims for a failure to pay overtime, it appears that this avenue will not be available. It may also be possible to avoid triple damages by paying interest in addition to the wages allegedly owed prior to initiation of a civil suit.
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