Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, § 1 (2026)

Section 1. In this chapter the following words, unless a different meaning is required by the context or is specifically prescribed, shall have the following meanings:

''Apprentice'', a person defined in section eleven H of chapter twenty-three.

''Assistant commissioner'', the assistant commissioner of the department of labor standards.

''Associate commissioners,'' the associate commissioners of the department of labor standards.

''Buildings used for industrial purposes'' or ''industrial establishments'' shall include factories, workshops, bakeries, mechanical establishments, laundries, foundries, tenement house workrooms, all other buildings or parts thereof where manufacturing is carried on, mercantile establishments as defined in this section, telegraph offices or telephone exchanges, express or transportation companies, private clubs, offices, letter shops, financial institutions, hotels, manicuring or hairdressing establishments, motion picture or other theaters and other places of amusement and garages.

''Child'', a person under eighteen.

''Commissioner'', the director of the department of labor standards.

''Co-operative courses'', courses approved as such by the department of education and conducted in public schools or any approved vocational school where technical or related instruction is given in conjunction with practical experience by employment in co-operating factories, manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishments or workshops or other co-operating employments.

''Department'', the department of labor standards.

''Discrimination'', dismissal from employment of, or refusal to employ, any person between the ages of forty-five and sixty-five because of his age.

''Employee'', as used in sections 105A to 105C, inclusive, 105E and 105F, shall mean any person employed for hire by an employer in any lawful employment, but shall not include persons under the age of eighteen engaged in domestic service in the home of the employer, or persons engaged in agricultural service, or employees of any social club, fraternal, charitable, educational, religious, scientific or literary association, no part of the net earnings of which enures to the benefit of any private individual.

''Employer'', as used in said sections 105A to 105C, inclusive, 105E and 105F, shall include any person acting in the interest of an employer directly or indirectly.

''Employment'', any trade, occupation or branch of industry, any particular method or process used therein, and the service of any particular employer; but it shall not include private domestic service by persons under the age of eighteen, or service as a farm laborer including all practices connected with agriculture, the tillage of the soil, the preparation and marketing of crops and the construction and maintenance of farm property and equipment, customarily performed by a farmer on a farm except the performance by a minor under the age of seventeen of structural painting or other work on the outside of any structure at a height of more than fifteen feet above the ground level. ''Employment'', as used in sections one hundred and five A to one hundred and five C, inclusive, means any employment under contract of hire, expressed or implied, written or oral, including all contracts entered into by helpers and assistants of employees, whether paid by employer or employee, if employed with the knowledge, actual or constructive, of the employer in which all or the greater part of the work is to be performed within the commonwealth.

''Employment permit'' or ''permit for employment'', shall include any permit required by any provision of this chapter, in order to enable a child to be employed in any employment as herein defined, or in domestic service or service on a farm, or at home, or in an employment co-operating in a co-operative course.

''Extraordinary emergency'', danger to property, life, public safety or public health.

''Factory'', any premises where mechanical power is used in aid of any manufacturing process there carried on.

''Industrial disease'' or ''occupational disease'', any ailment or disease caused by the nature or circumstances of the employment.

''Industrial health inspector'', an inspector qualified by training and experience in matters relating to health and sanitation.

''Inspector'', an inspector of the department or of the office of the attorney general.

''Iron works'', a mill, forge or any premises where any process is carried on for converting iron into malleable iron, steel or tin plate, or for otherwise making or converting steel.

''Manufacturing establishments'', any premises, room or place used for the purpose of making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing or adapting for sale any article or part thereof.

''Mechanical establishments'', any premises, other than a factory as above defined, where machinery is employed in connection with any work or process carried on therein.

''Mercantile establishments'', any premises used for the purposes of trade in the purchase or sale of any goods or merchandise, and any premises used for a restaurant or for publicly providing and serving meals and any premises used in connection with the service of cleansing, dyeing, laundering or pressing fabrics or wearing apparel.

''Place of employment'', every place, whether indoors or out or underground, and the premises appurtenant thereto, into, in or upon which any employee goes or remains either temporarily or regularly in the course of his employment.

''Print works'', any premises where the process of printing figures, patterns or designs upon yarn or cloth, or upon any woven or felted fabric not paper, is carried on.

''Safe'' or ''safety'', such freedom from danger to life, safety and health of employees as the nature of the employment will reasonably permit.

''Workshop'', any premises, room or place, not a factory as above defined, wherein manual labor is exercised by way of trade or for purposes of gain in or incidental to a process of making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing or adapting for sale any article or part thereof, and to which or over which premises, room or place the employer of the persons working therein has the right of access or control; but the exercise of such manual labor in a private house or private room by the family dwelling therein or by any of them, or if a majority of the persons therein employed are members of such family, shall not of itself constitute such house or room a workshop.