Mass-Peculiarities: An Employers Guide to Wage & Hour Law in the Bay State 2022 Edition

144 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2022 ed. © 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP she remarried or has other children), and 60 percent if the employee has no additional dependents. 841 If the support payments are more than twelve weeks in arrears, these limits increase to 55 percent and 65 percent, respectively. 842 Support orders take priority over all other types of wage assignments and attachments , 843 except IRS tax levies, which have equal status. 844 Massachusetts law permits an employer to deduct a support order processing fee of $1.00 per pay period from the employee’s pay, and the employer may also consolidate all of its employees’ support order garnishments into a single check submitted to the state each pay period. 845 An employer that fails to garnish wages subject to a support order may face stiff penalties and must compensate the beneficiary of the support order from its own funds for the full amount the employer failed to remit. Courts must also impose punitive damages equal to the amount of the support order or $500.00, whichever is larger. 846 C. Additional Protections for Members of the Military Federal law offers specific protections to members of the military whose wages are subject to garnishment if their military service prevented them from complying with a court order. 847 These servicemen and women may ask a judge to vacate or stay a garnishment order if the proceeding began before or during their military service, or within ninety days of its completion. 848 This rule also applies to child and spousal support orders. 849 D. Terminating Employees Subject to Garnishments An employer may not terminate any employee because he or she is subject to a single garnishment. 850 The CCPA punishes such terminations with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison, and a court may also order that the employee be reinstated. 851 However, an employee may be lawfully terminated if he or she is subject to multiple garnishments unless the garnishments are 841 15 U.S.C. § 1673(b)(2). 842 Id. 843 M.G.L. ch. 119A, § 12(f)(4) (“This order shall have priority over all other orders of assignment , income withholding, at tachment, liens, execut ions and other legal process, from whatever source, notwithstanding any other provision of law.”). 844 Compt roller of the Commonwealth, Payroll andLabor Cost Management Policies, Type of Employment, Wage Garnishments , at 2 (revised Nov. 1, 2006), available a t ht tps://public.powerdms.com/MACompt roller/document s/1779733 (last visitedAug. 5, 2021) (stat ing that whichever submission the state Department of Revenue receives first will be processed first ). 845 M.G.L. ch. 119A, § 12(f)(1). 846 M.G.L. ch. 119A, § 12(f)(3)(A). 847 Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003 (SCRA), 50 U.S.C. § 3934. 848 Id . 849 See U.S. Department of Health andHuman Services (DOH), Office of Child Support Enforcement , Dear Colleague Let ter DCL-04-26 (June 18, 2004) (“The SCRA applies to child support enforcement case[s] that are not final before December 19, 2003, the date of enactment of this Act .”). 850 15 U.S.C. § 1674(a). 851 15 U.S.C. § 1674(b).