Massachusetts' minimum wage is $15.00/hr, unchanged since January 1, 2023. Massachusetts reached this rate as the final step of its 2018 "Grand Bargain" law, and no further statewide increase is currently scheduled.
The Grand Bargain: How Massachusetts Got to $15
In 2018, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a package known as the "Grand Bargain," which phased the state's minimum wage up to $15.00/hr in gradual annual steps:
| Effective Date | Minimum Wage |
|---|---|
| January 1, 2020 | $12.75/hr |
| January 1, 2021 | $13.50/hr |
| January 1, 2022 | $14.25/hr |
| January 1, 2023 | $15.00/hr (current) |
The same law also gradually phased out mandatory time-and-a-half Sunday and holiday premium pay for retail workers over the same period, fully eliminating it by January 2023. Before the Grand Bargain, Massachusetts was one of the last states requiring retailers to pay overtime-style premium rates simply for scheduling someone on a Sunday or a legal holiday, regardless of how many hours they'd already worked that week. Retailers had lobbied against the rule for years, arguing it made weekend staffing more expensive than it needed to be, while worker advocates had defended it as extra compensation for giving up weekend time. The compromise tied the premium pay phase-out to the minimum wage phase-in: as the base wage rose each January, the required Sunday/holiday premium fell in step, until both changes finished together on January 1, 2023. Today, Massachusetts retail employers are free to schedule Sunday and holiday shifts at the regular hourly rate, the same as any other day of the week.
Massachusetts' Tipped Minimum Wage
Tipped employees in Massachusetts can be paid a direct cash wage of $6.75/hr, with employers allowed to credit up to $8.25/hr of tips toward the full $15.00/hr minimum. If a tipped worker's combined cash wage and tips don't reach $15.00/hr in a given shift, the employer must make up the difference. In practice, this means a Massachusetts restaurant server, bartender, or delivery driver who receives tips has a wage floor identical to every other worker in the state — $15.00/hr all-in — but the employer's direct cash obligation is only $6.75/hr as long as tips cover the remaining $8.25/hr. Employers are required to track tips shift by shift, not average them over a pay period, so a slow shift with light tipping still has to be topped up to $15.00/hr even if a busy shift the same week ran well above it.
A Worked Pay-Period Example
Here's what the mass minimum wage looks like in an actual paycheck. Take a non-tipped worker in Massachusetts working a standard 40-hour week at $15.00/hr:
- Gross pay for the week: 40 hours × $15.00/hr = $600.00
- Biweekly gross pay (two weeks, no overtime): 80 hours × $15.00/hr = $1,200.00
- Semi-monthly gross pay (average): approximately $1,300.00
If that same worker picks up 5 hours of overtime in a week — 45 hours total — federal overtime rules apply, since Massachusetts follows the standard time-and-a-half rule for non-exempt hourly workers who exceed 40 hours in a week. The overtime rate on the mass minimum wage works out to $22.50/hr ($15.00 × 1.5). That week's gross pay would be (40 × $15.00) + (5 × $22.50) = $600.00 + $112.50 = $712.50. This overtime math is separate from the retail Sunday/holiday premium pay that the Grand Bargain phased out — that premium applied regardless of weekly hours, while standard overtime is tied to the 40-hour threshold and still applies statewide today.
Massachusetts' Exempt Salary Threshold
Massachusetts does not set its own separate salary threshold for employees classified as exempt from overtime — it follows the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) threshold: $684/week ($35,568/year). Salaried employees paid below this amount generally must still receive overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a week, regardless of job title or how the position is classified internally. This is a common point of confusion: several neighboring states, including Connecticut and New York, have adopted their own higher exempt salary thresholds, but Massachusetts has not, so employers here only need to clear the federal bar.
How Massachusetts Compares to Its New England Neighbors
Massachusetts' $15.00/hr rate is now the lowest among its immediate New England neighbors. Connecticut leads the region at $16.94/hr, followed by Rhode Island at $16.00/hr — both states have continued raising their rates annually since Massachusetts' Grand Bargain increases stopped in 2023. Maine sits close behind Massachusetts at $14.65/hr, and Vermont follows at $14.42/hr. New Hampshire is the outlier: it has no state minimum wage of its own and simply follows the federal rate of $7.25/hr, unchanged since 2009.
| State | Minimum Wage |
|---|---|
| Connecticut | $16.94/hr |
| Rhode Island | $16.00/hr |
| Massachusetts | $15.00/hr |
| Maine | $14.65/hr |
| Vermont | $14.42/hr |
| New Hampshire | $7.25/hr (federal rate) |
Zooming out beyond New England, the mass minimum wage of $15.00/hr isn't unusual nationally — it currently ties with Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, Illinois, and Nebraska, all of which also sit at exactly $15.00/hr. States like Washington ($17.13/hr), California ($16.90/hr), and New York ($16.00/hr) now pay more, while roughly twenty states remain anchored to the $7.25/hr federal floor. Massachusetts sits in the middle of the pack nationally, even though it now trails most of its immediate neighbors.
What's the Salary at Massachusetts' Minimum Wage?
At a standard 40-hour week (2,080 hours/year), Massachusetts' $15.00/hr minimum wage breaks down to:
- Weekly: $600
- Monthly: $2,600
- Annually: $31,200
For comparison, a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr grosses just $15,080 a year — meaning the mass minimum wage puts a full-time worker $16,120 ahead annually of someone earning the federal floor. Anyone budgeting around these figures should keep in mind they're gross numbers, before federal and Massachusetts state income tax, Social Security, and Medicare withholding.
