Massachusetts' law providing meal and rest period guidelines can be found in Part I, Title XXI, Chapter 149 of the General Laws of Massachusetts.

CHAPTER 149. LABOR AND INDUSTRIES.

Chapter 149: Section 47. Work on Sunday; Alternate day off; Fines for violations.

Whoever, except at the request of the employee, requires an employee engaged in any commercial occupation or in the work of any industrial process not subject to the following section or in the work of transportation or communication to do on Sunday the usual work of his occupation, unless he is allowed during the six days next ensuing twenty-four consecutive hours without labor, shall be punished by a fine of not more then three hundred dollars; but this and the following section shall not be construed as allowing any work on Sunday not otherwise authorized by law.

Chapter 149: Section 48. One day rest in seven; Sunday operations; Fines for violations.

Every employer of labor engaged in carrying on any manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment or workshop in the commonwealth shall allow every person, except those specified in section fifty, but including watchmen and employees maintaining fires, employed in such manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment or workshop at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest, which shall include an unbroken period comprising the hours between eight o'clock in the morning and five o'clock in the evening, in every seven consecutive days. No employer shall operate any such manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment or workshop on Sunday unless he has complied with section fifty-one. Whoever violates this section shall be punished by a fine of three hundred dollars.

Chapter 149: Section 50A. Watchmen and employees maintaining fires; Rest periods; Fines for violations.

Every person employed as a watchman in establishments other than those described in section forty-eight, or employed in maintaining fires in such establishments, but not including janitors in residential apartment houses, shall be allowed at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in every seven consecutive days. No provision of any other section of this chapter shall be construed as limiting the rights given by this section. The term "watchman" as used in section forty-eight or in this section shall include guards in banks, as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and sixty-seven. An employer violating this section shall be punished by a fine of three hundred dollars.

Chapter 149: Section 56. Hours of work; posting notices; making up time lost by stoppage of machinery; employment by shifts; minors employed on farms.

No minor shall be employed or permitted to work in, or in connection with, any factory or workshop, or any manufacturing, mercantile or mechanical establishment, telegraph office or telephone exchange, or any express or transportation company, or any private club, or any office, letter shop or financial institution, or any laundry, hotel, manicuring or hairdressing establishment, or any motion picture or other theatre or any other place of amusement, or any garage, or any hospital in a nonprofessional capacity, or in any beauty culture, weight reducing or other similar establishment, or be employed as an elevator operator, or as a switchboard operator in a private exchange, or in domestic service in the home of the employer, more than nine hours in any one day, and, except as to transportation or telephone companies, and except as to hotels, private clubs and places of amusement where the employment is determined by the attorney general to be by seasons, and except as to hotels where meals are served only during three separate periods totalling not more than seven hours in any one day and the employment is connected with the serving of said meals, if the work so performed by such a minor in one day is not continuous, but is divided into two or more periods, the work of such minor shall be so arranged that all such periods of work shall fall within a period of not exceeding ten consecutive hours, except that in the case of mercantile establishments such periods of work may fall within a period of not exceeding eleven and one-half consecutive hours during a total of not more than seven days in any calendar year of which six shall be six weekdays within a period of four weeks immediately preceding Christmas and the seventh the Saturday immediately preceding Easter, except that in any place of employment where the principal source of income of certain employees is in tips or gratuities, upon the written petition of not less than sixty per cent of such employees, the attorney general may allow such periods of work to fall within a period not exceeding twelve consecutive hours; and in no case shall the hours of labor exceed forty-eight in a week, except that in manufacturing establishments or hotels where the employment is determined by the department to be by seasons, the number of such hours in any week may exceed forty-eight, but, except in the work of fish processing when necessary in the judgment of the attorney general, and then only during the months of June, July, August, September and October, shall not exceed fifty-two, provided that the total number of such hours in any year shall not exceed an average of forty-eight hours a week for the whole year, excluding Sundays and holidays; and if any minor shall be employed or permitted to work in more than one such place, the total number of hours of such employment shall not exceed forty-eight hours in any one week. The hours of labor of nonprofessional employees in a nursing or convalescent home, or rest home, or charitable home for the aged shall not exceed forty-eight hours in any one week. The attorney general may grant authority for office workers to exceed nine hours of labor in any one day; provided, that the hours of labor of such workers shall not exceed forty-eight in a week. Every employer, except those hereinafter designated, and except employers of persons in domestic service in the employer's home, shall post and keep posted in such manner as the attorney general may require in a conspicuous place in every room where such persons are employed a printed notice stating the number of hours' work required of them on each day of the week, the hours of beginning and stopping work, and the hours when the time allowed for meals begins and ends, or, in case of mercantile establishments and of establishments exempted from section one hundred, the time, if any, allowed for meals. The employment of any such person at any time, other than as stated in said printed notice, shall be deemed a violation of this section unless such employment was to make up time lost on a previous day of the same week by reason of stopping, for not less than thirty consecutive minutes, of machinery upon which such person was employed or dependent for employment and unless a written report of the date, hour and duration of the stopping of such machinery is sent to the attorney general within forty-eight hours of its occurrence; nor shall such overtime employment be authorized because of the stopping of machinery for the celebration of any holiday. Every employer engaged in furnishing public service, or in any other kind of business in respect to which the attorney general shall find that public necessity or convenience requires the employment of minors by shifts during the different periods or parts of the day, shall post and keep posted in such manner as the attorney general may require in a conspicuous place in every room where such persons are employed a printed notice stating separately the hours of employment for each shift or tour of duty and the amount of time allowed for meals. A list by name of the employees, stating in which shift each is employed, shall be kept on file at each place of employment for inspection by employees and by officers charged with enforcement of this law. In cases of extraordinary emergency or extraordinary public requirement, this section shall not apply to employers engaged in public service or in other kinds of business in which shifts may be required as hereinbefore stated, but no such emergency or public requirement shall justify a variance from the preceding requirements of this section until a written report of the day and hour of its occurrence and its duration is sent to the department. This section shall not apply to persons who are declared by the attorney general to be employed in a professional, executive, administrative or supervisory capacity or as personal secretaries. The attorney general may grant authority for employees of hospitals to be employed for more than nine hours in one day and forty-eight hours in one week and outside of a period of ten consecutive hours, or for employees of nursing or convalescent homes, rest homes and charitable homes for the aged to be employed for more than forty-eight hours in one week, if he finds that an emergency exists.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, no minor under fourteen shall be employed in service on a farm for a total of more than four hours in any one day nor more than a total of twenty-four hours in any one week, except that the provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to the employment of a minor under fourteen who is related by blood or marriage to the owner or operator of the farm on which such minor is employed.

Chapter 149: Section 74. Posting of notice of hours of work of minor; employment at other times; changing terms.

Except as provided in section fifty-six, every person employing any minor in any establishment mentioned in section sixty shall keep posted in a conspicuous place in the room where such minor is employed or permitted to work a printed notice stating the number of hours such minor is required or permitted to work on each day of the week, with the total for the week, the hours of commencing and stopping work, and the hours when the time allowed for meals begins and ends for each day of the week.

The employment of any minor at any time other than as stated in said printed notice shall be deemed a violation of this section. The terms of such notice for any week or part thereof shall not be changed after the beginning of labor on the first day of the week without the written consent of the attorney general.

Chapter 149: Section 75. Forms of notice furnished by department.

The attorney general, shall, upon application, furnish the printed forms of the lists and notices required by sections fifty-six and seventy-four to all persons required to post the same.

Chapter 149: Section 100. Hours of work without interval for meal; duration; violation of statute.

No person shall be required to work for more than six hours during a calendar day without an interval of at least thirty minutes for a meal. Any employer, superintendent, overseer or agent who violates this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than three hundred nor more than six hundred dollars.

Chapter 149: Section 101. Nonapplicability of statute relating to mealtimes and intervals for meals.

The preceding section shall not apply to iron works, glass works, paper mills, letterpress establishments, print works, bleaching works, or dyeing works; and the attorney general, if it is proved to his satisfaction that in any other factories or workshops or mechanical establishments it is necessary, by reason of the continuous nature of the processes or of special circumstances affecting such establishments, including collective bargaining agreements to exempt them from the preceding section and that such exemption can be made without injury to the persons affected thereby, may grant such exemption as, in his discretion, seems necessary .

Chapter 149: Section 102. Labor during mealtime without knowledge of employer.

If a minor shall, without the orders, consent or knowledge of the employer or of the superintendent, overseer or other agent of the employer, labor in a manufacturing or mechanical establishment, factory or workshop during a part of any time allowed for meals in such establishment, factory or workshop, according to the notice required by section fifty-six, and if a copy of such notice was posted in a conspicuous place in the room where such labor was performed, with a rule of the establishment, factory or workshop forbidding such minor to labor during such time, neither the employer nor a superintendent, overseer or other agent of the employer shall be held responsible for such labor.

Chapter 149: Section 184. Days of rest; Emergencies; Fines for violations.

Every person employed as signalman, towerman, leverman, agent, train despatcher, telegrapher or telephone operator in a railroad signal tower or railroad station, and every other person employed by a railroad in the operating of trains by the use of the telegraph, telephone or signal and interlocking switching machines shall be allowed two days of twenty-four hours each in every month for rest with regular compensation, except in a case of extraordinary emergency caused by accident, fire, flood, or danger to life or property, when the said period of rest shall be allowed after the emergency is past. Any violation of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars.