{"id":230,"date":"2020-02-26T16:08:52","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T16:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherin.com\/employment-blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2020-02-26T20:50:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T20:50:06","slug":"but-i-would-have-earned-it-treble-damages-for-lost-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sherin.com\/employment-blog\/2020\/02\/26\/but-i-would-have-earned-it-treble-damages-for-lost-wages\/","title":{"rendered":"But I Would Have Earned It \u2013 Treble Damages for Lost Wages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Massachusetts Wage Act provides strong protections for employees, including, for example, making it unlawful for employers to withhold an employee\u2019s wages, retaliate against an employee for seeking his or her wages, or have an employee \u2013 even if voluntarily \u2013 waive his or her right to wages. The Wage Act also contains harsh punishment for employers that violate the statute, including liability for\u00a0<\/span><b>three times<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0the unpaid or lost wages, called \u201ctreble damages.\u201d Given these penalties, what constitutes a \u201cwage\u201d under the statute is hotly contested.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a recent decision,\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parker v. Enernoc, Inc.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a broad definition of \u201cwages,\u201d and admonished other courts to keep in mind that the purpose of the Wage Act is \u201cto protect employees and their right to wages.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Wage Act itself makes clear that \u201cwages\u201d include commissions that are \u201cdefinitively determined\u201d and \u201cdue and payable.\u201d However, as the Court makes clear in the\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parker\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">case, payments that are \u201cdefinitively determined [and] due and payable\u201d are an example, not a limitation, on what commissions may be considered \u201cwages\u201d under the Act and, therefore, are subject to treble damages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parker<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the plaintiff closed a very large deal, which under the commission plan entitled her to two payments: the first immediately, and the second one year later. When the plaintiff raised concerns that her first payment was improperly low, she was fired, and as a result, she never received her second payment. A jury found that the plaintiff\u2019s termination was in retaliation for seeking her wages, in violation of the Wage Act, and awarded the plaintiff the second payment. As the commission was not \u201cdue and payable\u201d at the time of termination, the trial court did not award treble damages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On appeal, the Supreme Judicial Court held that even though the second commission payment was not yet \u201cdue and payable,\u201d it was still a wage under the Act. The Court stated plainly that \u201cas a result of the retaliation, the plaintiff did not receive wages she otherwise would have received. Wages lost as a result of retaliation are trebled under the Wage Act.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Furthermore, the Court rejected the employer\u2019s argument that the plaintiff\u2019s failure to satisfy the \u201ccontinued employment\u201d condition in the commission plan meant that the second commission payment was not a wage protected by the Act. The Court held that a \u201ccontinued employment\u201d condition cannot be \u201crelied upon by an employer to create circumstances under which the contingency goes unfulfilled in order to deny a commission that otherwise would be due and payable to an employee.\u201d Thus, if an employer fires an employee before a commission becomes due to avoid making payment, treble damages are likely available.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This decision contains strong language reinforcing an employee\u2019s right to wages and reminding employers that harsh punishment may follow efforts to evade payment or retaliate against those that seek their wages. If you are owed money by your employer, there is no substitute for having your situation evaluated by experienced counsel.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Massachusetts Wage Act provides strong protections for employees, including, for example, making it unlawful for employers to withhold an employee\u2019s wages, retaliate against an employee for seeking his or her wages, or have an employee \u2013 even if voluntarily \u2013 waive his or her right to wages. The Wage Act also contains harsh punishment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>But I Would Have Earned It \u2013 Treble Damages for Lost Wages - Employment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherin.com\/employment-blog\/2020\/02\/26\/but-i-would-have-earned-it-treble-damages-for-lost-wages\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"But I Would Have Earned It \u2013 Treble Damages for Lost Wages - Employment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Massachusetts Wage Act provides strong protections for employees, including, for example, making it unlawful for employers to withhold an employee\u2019s wages, retaliate against an employee for seeking his or her wages, or have an employee \u2013 even if voluntarily \u2013 waive his or her right to wages. 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