Massachusetts Minimum Wage Calculator

Massachusetts’ ordinary minimum is $15 per hour, with an eligible service cash rate of $6.75. For tipped service work, the employer must check each shift’s shortfall. Enter shifts separately; the tool adds the week’s overtime without allowing a high-tip shift to erase another shift’s required payment.

Time card Calculate pay for a covered hourly job

Confirmed job and overtime coverage Work date Weeks at this rate and schedule Shifts in this workweek: hours, retained tips ($) One shift per line. Keep separate shifts separate, including two shifts on the same day. Include every shift in the same fixed workweek. Cash-wage treatment This is ordinary adult hourly work at the $15 floor with federal overtime after 40 hours. For the restaurant service-rate choice, state restaurant overtime exemption and federal overtime coverage are confirmed, all entered hours are eligible tipped service work, customary monthly tips exceed $30, and required written notice and lawful pooling are confirmed. No non-tipped duties, reporting-pay claim, special certificate or higher contract rate applies. No bonuses, compulsory service charges, multiple pay rates, or wage deductions. If using the tip credit, eligibility, required advance notice, and lawful tip retention/pooling are confirmed. All hours entered are in that eligible tipped occupation.

Earnings statement Needs your inputs

Weekly gross including tips—

Confirm coverage to calculate.

Hourly floor—
Per shift—
Weekly gross—
Monthly average—
Yearly gross—

Employer cash before shortfall: —
Weekly tips retained: —
Employer shift shortfall payments: —
Total employer cash: —

Overtime uses the full regular rate before subtracting a permitted tip credit. The employer must cover each shift’s tip shortfall, even if another shift has excess tips. This floor scenario does not calculate pay at a higher agreed rate. Per-shift pay divides the week by the shifts entered. Annual figures repeat the rounded weekly result.

Reviewed rate period: 2026-01-01 through 2027-12-31. Gross earnings before taxes or deductions. Annual figures repeat this weekly scenario; they do not combine different rate periods.

Reviewed October 2, 2026. DLS Minimum Wage Program; G.L. c. 151, § 7.

The state’s two-shift example

The Attorney General’s guide uses a server with two five-hour shifts: $30 in tips on the first and $150 on the second. Direct service wages are $33.75 for each shift. The first shift needs another $11.25 from the employer to reach $75. The second needs no extra payment. Pay and recordkeeping guide.

Shift	Hours	Cash at $6.75	Retained tips	Shortfall
Slow shift	5	$33.75	$30.00	$11.25
Busy shift	5	$33.75	$150.00	$0
Total	10	$67.50	$180.00	$11.25

The employer pays $78.75 after the adjustment; combined gross is $258.75. Averaging $180 of tips over ten hours would conceal the $11.25 owed. In the form, enter two lines: 5, 30 and 5, 150.

Restaurant overtime needs the federal coverage check

Restaurants appear among the state overtime exemptions. That state exemption does not remove federal overtime protection from an otherwise covered employee. The tipped option is specifically for restaurant service work covered by federal weekly overtime; it does not apply the same cash calculation to every tipped occupation. § 1 A(14); DLS restaurant guidance.

For five nine-hour eligible service shifts, each with $100 retained tips, cash before adjustments is 45 × $6.75 plus five overtime premiums of $7.50: $341.25. Each shift’s tips cover its ordinary $8.25-per-hour credit, so no shortfall is added. Combined gross is $841.25. The overtime premium starts from the full $15 regular rate. Federal tipped-overtime calculation.

Non-tipped duties cannot be funded with table-service tips

DLS’s November 2025 opinion distinguishes eligible service work from separate non-tipped duties during the same workday. Its example has one hour of kitchen preparation, six hours waiting tables and one hour cleaning. The two non-tipped hours require the full minimum even when service earnings exceed it. Those mixed-duty shifts are outside this tool’s service-rate option. DLS opinion MW-2025-11-017.

Keep a record of the duties as well as clock-in and clock-out times. Combining a preparation shift and a table-service shift into one line would prevent the shortfall check from representing the actual pay obligation.

Tip eligibility and notice

State law identifies service employees who regularly receive more than $20 per month in tips; federal tipped-employee rules use more than $30. Because this tool’s restaurant model requires federal coverage, its confirmation uses the higher threshold. Required written notice and a lawful pool must also be confirmed before applying a credit. State service-rate statute; DLS notice guidance; federal conditions.

Full-cash jobs and annual schedules

Choose the general full-cash option for an ordinary covered job without a credit. Five eight-hour shifts produce $600, or $31,200 if repeated for 52 weeks. Five nine-hour shifts produce $712.50 before tips and taxes. For shorter seasonal work, enter the number of weeks actually modeled instead of assuming year-round employment.

The form does not calculate agriculture, special-license pay, reporting pay, exempt jobs, multiple regular rates or contractual premiums. Wage calculations do not establish whether a particular schedule complies with other workplace requirements.

Nearby tools: Connecticut minimum wage, Rhode Island minimum wage, New Hampshire minimum wage, Vermont minimum wage and Maine minimum wage. Methodology · Sources.

Updated October 5, 2026 First published September 4, 2026

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