192 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. © 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Support orders take priority over all other types of wage assignments and attachments,1208 except IRS tax levies, which have equal status.1209 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.1210 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.1211 3. 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.1212 Service members 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.1213 This rule also applies to child and spousal support orders.1214 4. Terminating Employees Subject to Garnishments Employers may not terminate employees because they are subject to a single garnishment.1215 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.1216 However, employees may be lawfully terminated if they are subject to multiple garnishments unless the garnishments are support orders.1217 In Massachusetts, employers that refuse to hire or that terminate, suspend, or discipline employees because they are subject to support orders can be liable for lost wages and benefits, plus an additional $1,000 fine.1218 1208 M.G.L. ch. 119A, § 12(f)(4) (“This order shall have priority over all other orders of assignment, income withholding, attachment, liens, executions and other legal process, from whatever source, notwithstanding any other provision of law.”). 1209 Comptroller of the Commonwealth, Payroll and Labor Cost Management Policies, Type of Employment, Wage Garnishments, at 2 (revised Nov. 1, 2006), available at https://public.powerdms.com/MAComptroller/documents/1779733 (last visited Mar. 6, 2025) (stating that whichever submission the state Department of Revenue receives first will be processed first). 1210 M.G.L. ch. 119A, § 12(f)(1). 1211 M.G.L. ch. 119A, § 12(f)(3)(A). 1212 Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003 (SCRA), 50 U.S.C. § 3934. 1213 Id. 1214 See U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DOH), Office of Child Support Enforcement, Dear Colleague Letter 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.”). 1215 15 U.S.C. § 1674(a). 1216 15 U.S.C. § 1674(b). 1217 15 U.S.C. §§ 1674(a), 1677(2); M.G.L. ch. 119A, § 12(f)(2). 1218 M.G.L. ch. 119A, § 12(f)(2).
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