Is a pay stub required in Massachusetts?

The short answer

Yes. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 149, section 148 says an employer paying an employee wages "shall furnish to such employee a suitable pay slip, check stub or envelope" showing the name of the employer, the name of the employee, the day, month and year, the number of hours worked, the hourly rate, and "the amounts of deductions or increases made for the pay period." It is one of the shortest pay stub statutes in the country. It says nothing about electronic delivery, retention or a specific penalty, which is where guidance and other sections fill in. The state table compares it with the rest.

What the pay slip must show

• The name of the employer.
• The name of the employee.
• The day, month and year.
• The number of hours worked.
• The hourly rate.
• The amounts of deductions or increases made for the pay period.

Notice what the statute does not list: gross pay, net pay and the pay period start and end dates are not named. In practice every payroll system shows them, and a stub that omits them would be hard to defend if it left an employee unable to see how the check was figured, but the text of the statute asks for the six items above. The section also adds a separate statement duty for railroad corporations, which does not apply to most workers.

Timing and the check-cashing rule in the same section

The same section requires employers to pay weekly or bi-weekly, generally within six days of the end of the pay period, with different timing for workers who quit or are discharged, and says an employer paying by check or draft must provide reasonable facilities for cashing it as the Attorney General determines. Pay slips are one sentence in a long section about when and how wages are paid, so a pay slip dispute is usually part of a larger wage claim. If you are studying timing, see the payday and sick leave by state page.

Electronic pay stubs

The statute names "a pay slip, check stub or envelope." Official guidance fills the gap: the Massachusetts guide to pay and recordkeeping says paystubs may be given electronically as long as the employer provides a way for the worker to print the information for free, and that employers may not charge workers for paystubs. We could not open that mass.gov page with our automated check on October 20, 2026, so the electronic rule is shown in the table with a dagger. The practical lesson: an employer that moves to an online portal should keep printing free and easy for workers, and a worker who cannot print should ask in writing.

Remedies: what treble damages do and do not cover

Section 150 provides that an employee who prevails "shall be awarded treble damages, as liquidated damages, for any lost wages and other benefits and shall also be awarded the costs of the litigation and reasonable attorneys' fees." The trebled amount is tied to lost wages and benefits. A missing or inaccurate pay slip, by itself, does not create lost wages, so its main role is evidentiary: an accurate stub lets the worker show what was paid and what was withheld, and a missing one makes the claim harder to prove. The statute does not set a fixed statutory amount for a stub violation, in contrast with California's $4,000 cap (California) or New York's $5,000 cap (New York).

Worked example (hypothetical)

A worker is owed $600.00 in unpaid overtime for a year. If the claim succeeds under section 150, the award is trebled to $1,800.00 plus fees. If the only problem is that the pay slip omitted the hourly rate, there are no lost wages to treble, so the value of fixing the slip is accuracy and proof.

Edge cases and common mistakes

• Omitting the hourly rate for a salaried worker. The statute asks for hours and hourly rate; employers who pay salary often show the computed equivalent.
• Combining deductions and increases into one net adjustment, which hides what changed.
• Using a portal that blocks printing.
• Charging a fee for a duplicate stub. Official guidance says employers may not charge for paystubs.
• Assuming the railroad language applies. Railroad corporations must also give a statement with current accrued total earnings and taxes and a listing of daily wages; other employers need not.
• Assuming everyone is covered. Section 148 says it does not apply to employees of certain hospitals supported by public money or run as public charities (unless the employee asks to be paid weekly), to shareholder employees of a co-operative association, or to casual employees of the commonwealth or a county, city or town. It also says no one can contract out of the section, and that a corporation's president, treasurer and managing officers are deemed to be the employers.

Who this is for, and what it does not cover

For Massachusetts employees and employers. It does not cover the Earned Sick Time law, the minimum wage regulations at 454 CMR 27 (which set recordkeeping rules we could not retrieve), final pay or tip pooling. Use the Massachusetts paycheck calculator for take-home pay and pay stub explained for the line-by-line guide.

Sources

Each link was opened and read on October 20, 2026 (retrieved 2026-10). Items marked with a dagger are explained after the list.

• M.G.L. c. 149, 148 — pay slip, check stub or envelope contents; weekly or bi-weekly payment; check-cashing facilities.
• M.G.L. c. 149, 150 — treble damages as liquidated damages for lost wages and benefits, costs and fees.
• Mass.gov, Pay and recordkeeping † — electronic paystubs allowed with free printing; no charge for paystubs. Our automated check was refused by the site (HTTP 403) on 2026-10-20; the content was confirmed from the search index excerpt.

† The official current text could not be opened by our automated check, or the link is a mirror, an open copy or a secondary summary of it. Use it as a pointer and read the official text before relying on it.