Information about 2023 Holiday permits for opening on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day
Retailers may open at any time on Sunday without the need for approval by the Department of Labor Standards, and without the need for local police permit. (To find out about permissible days and hours of operation for alcoholic beverage retailers, contact the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission at (617) 727-3040).
Certain retail establishments* that operate on Sundays are subject to the following restriction:
Voluntariness of employment
Most retailers cannot require workers to work on Sunday and cannot punish or retaliate against a worker in any way for refusing to work on a Sunday (the “voluntariness requirement”). This applies regardless of the number of individuals employed, and regardless of whether an employee is paid hourly or by a fixed salary, unless the employer falls into one of the specific exemptions referenced below.
Note that premium pay requirements for certain retail employers to pay certain hourly employees a higher hourly rate on Sundays and certain holidays were eliminated effective January 1, 2023.
*Massachusetts’ blue laws contain 55 exemptions allowing different types of businesses to operate on Sundays and certain covered holidays. Some types of retailers engaged in the sale of goods have their own specific exemptions and therefore do not have to comply with the “voluntariness” requirement. These include:
- Food stores that don’t employ more than three people, including the proprietor, at any one time on Sunday and throughout the week.
- The sale of paintings, objects of art, catalogues and pictures at art galleries.
- The sale of gifts, souvenirs, antiques, secondhand furniture, handcrafted goods and art goods.
- The sale and rental of sporting equipment and clothing on premises where the sport for which the equipment or clothing to be sold or rented is carried on. (For example, a skating rink selling skates, or a golf course selling clubs or golf shoes.
- The sale of fuel, gasoline and lubricating oil and the operation of an automotive service facility.
- The sale of tires, batteries and automotive parts for emergency use.
- The sale plants, trees or bushes, and items related to their cultivation.
- The sale and delivery of cut flowers.
- Pet stores and pet supply stores.
- Sale of state lottery tickets
- The sale of baked goods.
- Restaurants, including take-out.
This is only a partial list of all types of businesses that have their own specific exemptions to blue laws. For the complete list, see Mass. General Laws Chapter 136, Section 6.
Any other business involved in the sale of retail goods that does not fall into one of the specific exemptions must comply with the voluntariness requirement, including grocery stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, and drug stores. The sale of one of the items listed in the exemptions, among other items, above does not mean that a business qualifies for that specific exemption. (For instance, a supermarket that sells cut flowers and lottery tickets does not qualify for the exemption for either of those types of specific businesses). To qualify for one of the specific exemptions, the business must be exclusively engaged in that specific activity (for instance, a flower store that only sells flowers).