Massachusetts requires a discharged employee to be paid in full on the day of discharge — not the next payday, that day (§148).
Law: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, §§148, 150 · Rules checked October 2026
If you quit, Massachusetts sets the deadline at the next regular payday (or the following Saturday if there is no regular payday).
Massachusetts is the strictest state in this dataset: wages not paid in full on the day of discharge expose the employer to mandatory treble damages — three times the unpaid wages — plus costs and attorney's fees under §150. It is not discretionary, and courts apply it even to good-faith mistakes about the amount.
Your state treats earned vacation as wages: if you had accrued, unused vacation when you left, it must be paid in your final check. Forfeiture clauses ("use it or lose it" at separation) are void here.
The free claim goes to Massachusetts Attorney General, Fair Labor Division. It costs nothing and you do not need a lawyer; what you need is the amount computed, the demand already sent where your state rewards one, and the file assembled.
Filing window: 1095 days from the date the wages were due. Wage Act claims carry a three-year window — and the Attorney General's office takes the complaint for free.
Compute your Massachusetts verdict — free
General information from the published statute — not legal advice. Penalty figures elsewhere on this site are statutory maximums, with willfulness conditions named where the statute names them.