Section 151A:6 - Services not included in "employment"The term "employment" shall not include:
(a) service in agricultural labor, except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of section 4A and section 8C, by an individual who is an alien admitted to the United States to perform agricultural labor pursuant to section 214(c) and 101(a)(15)(H) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;(d) Service performed by an individual in the employ of his son, daughter or spouse, and service performed by a child under the age of eighteen in the employ of his father or mother;(e) Service performed in the employ of the United States government or of an instrumentality of the United States which is wholly or partially owned by the United States, or exempt from the tax imposed by section 3301 of the Federal Internal Revenue Code of 1954 or any acts in addition thereto and amendments thereof, by virtue of any provision of law which specifically refers to such section (or the corresponding section of a prior law) in granting such exemption; provided that if this commonwealth should not be certified by the Secretary of Labor under section 3304 of said Internal Revenue Code, as amended, for any year, then the contributions, interest, penalties and fines required of any instrumentalities of the United States government under this chapter with respect to such year shall be deemed to have been erroneously collected within the meaning of section eighteen and said contributions shall be refunded from the clearing account of the unemployment compensation fund and the interest, penalties and fines shall be refunded from the interest, penalty or fine payments in the clearing account of the unemployment compensation fund or from the contingent fund;(f) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (a) of section four A, service performed in the employ of a state, or political subdivision thereof, or an Indian tribe, or any instrumentality, or any instrumentality of any one or more of the foregoing which is wholly owned by one or more states or political subdivisions or Indian tribes; and any service performed in the employ of any instrumentality of one or more states or political subdivision to the extent that the instrumentality is, with respect to such service, immune under the constitution of the United States from the tax imposed by section 3301 of said Internal Revenue Code, or any acts in addition thereto and amendments thereof.(h) Service not in the course of the employer's trade or business performed in any calendar quarter by an employee, unless the cash remuneration paid for such service is fifty dollars or more and such service is performed by an individual who is regularly employed by such employer to perform such service. For the purpose of this subsection, an individual shall be deemed to be regularly employed by an employer during a calendar quarter only if (A) on each of some twenty-four days during such quarter such individual performs for such employer for some portion of the day service not in the course of the employer's trade or business; or (B) such individual was regularly employed, as determined under clause (A), by such employer in the performance of such service during the preceding calendar quarter;(i) Service performed by an individual as an employee or employee representative as defined in section one of the Federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act; and service with respect to which unemployment benefits are payable under an employment compensation system for maritime employees established by an act of Congress;(j) Service performed in any calendar quarter in the employ of any organization exempt from income tax under section 501 (a) of the Federal Internal Revenue Code, other than an organization described in section 401 (a) of said Code, or exempt from income tax under section 521 of said Code, if the remuneration for such service is less than fifty dollars;(k) Service performed in the employ of a school, college, or university, if such service is performed by a student who is enrolled and is regularly attending classes at such school, college, or university, or by the spouse of such a student, if such spouse is advised, at the time such spouse commences to perform such service, that the employment of such spouse to perform such service is provided under a program to provide financial assistance to such student by such school, college, or university, and such employment will not be covered by any program of unemployment insurance; or service performed by an individual who is enrolled at a nonprofit or public educational institution which normally maintains a regular faculty and curriculum and normally has a regularly organized body of students in attendance at the place where its educational activities are carried on as a student in a full-time program, taken for credit at such institution, which combines academic instruction with work experience, if such service is an integral part of such program, and such institution has so certified to the employer, except that this subsection shall not apply to service performed in a program established for or on behalf of an employer or group of employers.(l) Service performed as a student nurse in the employ of a hospital or a nurses' training school by an individual who is enrolled and is regularly attending classes in a nurses' training school chartered or approved pursuant to law; and service performed as an interne in the employ of a hospital by an individual who has completed a four years' course in a medical school chartered or approved pursuant to state law;(m) Service performed in the employ of a foreign government, including service as a consular or other officer or employee or a nondiplomatic representative; or, service performed in the employ of an instrumentality wholly owned by a foreign government and exempt under the provisions of chapters 2125 inclusive of the Federal Internal Revenue Code or any acts in addition thereto and amendments thereof;(n) Service performed by an individual as an insurance agent or as an insurance solicitor, if all such service is performed for remuneration solely by way of commission and such service is excluded from the term "employment" under the provisions of section 3306 of the Federal Internal Revenue Code or any acts in addition thereto and amendments thereof; provided, that service performed by any agent selling or servicing policies of industrial life insurance, as defined by section one of chapter one hundred and seventy-five, and employed by any life insurance company authorized to do business in this commonwealth, whether his remuneration for such service is by way of commission or otherwise, shall be deemed employment within the provisions of this chapter;(o) Service performed by an individual under the age of eighteen in the delivery or distribution of newspapers or shopping news, not including delivery or distribution to any point for subsequent delivery or distribution.(p) Services performed by an individual as a real estate broker or salesman if he is licensed by the state as real estate broker or salesman, and if he is remunerated solely by way of commission; provided, however, that the term "employment" shall include service performed by a real estate broker or a salesman, if such service is performed for a governmental employer as defined in subsection (i) of section one.(q) Services performed by an individual as a poll taker or opinion taker, if the rate of such individual's remuneration is determined by a person other than the person supervising him and if said individual is free to accept or decline any given assignment; provided, however, that term "employment" shall include service performed as a poll taker or opinion taker, if such service is performed for a governmental employer as defined in subsection (i) of section one.(r) Service performed in the employ of a church or convention or association of churches, or an organization which is operated primarily for religious purposes and which is operated, supervised, controlled, or principally supported by a church or convention or association of churches;(s) Service performed by a duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister of a church in the exercise of his ministry or by a member of a religious order in the exercise of duties required by such order;(t) Service performed in a facility conducted for the purpose of carrying out a program of rehabilitation for individuals whose earning capacity is impaired by age or physical or mental deficiency or injury or providing remunerative work for individuals who because of their impaired physical or mental capacity cannot be readily absorbed in the competitive labor market by an individual receiving such rehabilitation or remunerative work;(u) Service performed as part of an unemployment work-relief or work-training program assisted or financed in whole or in part by any federal agency or an agency of a state or political subdivision thereof, by an individual receiving such work relief or work training;(v) service performed in a custodial or penal institution by an inmate of said custodial or penal institution.(w) Service performed by a patient in the employ of a hospital, whether public, nonprofit, or proprietary.(x) service performed by a full-time student, as defined in section 3306 (q) of said Internal Revenue Code of 1954, in the employ of an organized camp if such camp: (i) did not operate for more than seven months in the calendar year and did not operate for more than seven months in the preceding calendar year, or (ii), had average gross receipts for any six months in the preceding calendar year which were not more than thirty-three and one-third per cent of its average receipts for the other six months in the preceding year and if such full-time student performed services in the employ of such camp for less than thirteen calendar weeks in such calendar year.Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 151A, § 6
Amended by Acts 2014, c. 148,§ 6, eff. 9/24/2014.Amended by Acts 2002, c. 347, § 3 and 4, eff. 10/9/02.