16 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. © 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP If uniforms require dry cleaning, commercial laundering, or other special treatment, the employer must reimburse employees for the actual costs of the services. When uniforms are made of “wash and wear” materials that do not require special treatment and that are routinely washed and dried with other personal garments, the employer need not reimburse employees for uniform maintenance costs.89 c. Other Statutorily Permissible Deductions Both Massachusetts and federal law allow other deductions, such as union dues, purchase of stock pursuant to an employee stock purchase plan, and an employee’s portion of health care premiums, if authorized by the employee.90 The Code of Massachusetts Regulations also addresses “indirect deductions,” and states that “[a]n employer may not separately charge or bill an employee for fees or amounts not allowed as deductions.”91 To date, neither the courts nor the DLS has provided any guidance on “indirect deductions.” In addition, while an employer need not pay employees for time not worked due to tardiness, deductions may not be made from the wages of a non-exempt employee beyond the proportionate wage that would have been earned during the time lost.92 3. Deductions Not Specifically Listed Above Beyond mandatory or specifically authorized deductions, employers are limited in the deductions they can make from employee paychecks, but due to the ambiguous wording in the statute, the parameters regarding which deductions are allowable are not clear. Thus, this is a heavily litigated area of law, and a few court decisions have provided additional guidance regarding the limitations on deductions. The most significant case, decided by the SJC, arose from an employee’s claim that a company was deducting from its drivers’ wages the costs of damage to company trucks in accordance with company policy.93 Under that policy, a worker found to be at fault in an accident with a company truck could either accept disciplinary action or agree to set off damages against his wages.94 The Court determined that Massachusetts law prohibits wage deductions associated with an employer’s unilateral determination of an employee’s fault and damages—even if the employee has authorized the deductions.95 89 Id. 90 See M.G.L. ch. 154, § 8; M.G.L. ch. 180, § 17A; 29 C.F.R. § 778.304(a)(3). 91 See 454 C.M.R. § 27.05(5). 92 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 152. 93 Camara v. Attorney Gen., 458 Mass. 756, 757-58 (2011). 94 Id. 95 Id. at 763-64; see also Muniz v. RXO Last Mile, Inc., No. CV 4:18-11905-TSH, 2023 WL 8851090, *3 (D. Mass. Dec. 21, 2023) (summary judgment denied where plaintiffs’ alleged that employer violated the Wage Act by making deductions from pay for damage to property); DaSilva v. Border Transfer of Mass., Inc., 296 F. Supp. 3d 389, 396 (D. Mass. 2017) (“The Massachusetts
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