Chapter 154. Assignment of Wages

Chapter 154: Section 1. Assignment defined

Section 1. The term "assignment", as used in this chapter, shall include every instrument purporting to transfer an interest in or an authority to collect the future wages or salary of a person.

Chapter 154: Section 2. Security for loans; acceptance by employer; recordation; consent of wife; period of assignment

Section 2. No assignment of or order for wages or salary to be earned in the future to secure a loan of less than three thousand dollars shall be valid against an employer of the person making such assignment or order until the assignment or order is accepted in writing by the employer, nor until the assignment or order and the acceptance of the same have been filed and recorded with the clerk of the city or town where the person making the assignment or order resides if he is a resident of the commonwealth, or in which he is employed if he is not a resident thereof; nor shall it be valid unless said assignment is substantially in the form prescribed in section five. No such assignment or order shall be recorded by the clerk of a city or town unless it states on its face that the sum of ten dollars per week, as earned, of the wages or salary so assigned is exempt from such assignment or order. No such assignment or order shall be valid when made by a married man unless the written consent of his wife to the making thereof is attached thereto. No such assignment or order shall be valid for a period exceeding one year from the making thereof. The fee for the filing and recording of such assignment shall be as provided by clause (2) of section thirty-four of chapter two hundred and sixty-two.

Chapter 154: Section 3. Conditions for validity

Section 3. No assignment of or order for future wages other than one subject to the preceding section shall be valid for a period exceeding two years from the making thereof, nor unless made to secure a debt contracted prior to or simultaneously with the execution of said assignment or order, nor unless executed in writing in the standard form set forth in section five and signed by the assignor in person and not by attorney, nor unless such assignment or order states the date of its execution, the money or the money value of goods actually furnished by the assignee and the rate of interest, if any, to be paid thereon. Three fourths of the weekly earnings or wages of the assignor shall at all times be exempt from such assignment or order, and no assignment or order shall be valid which does not so state on its face. No such assignment or order shall be valid unless the written acceptance of the employer of the assignor, and, if the assignor is a married man, the written consent of his wife to the making thereof, are endorsed thereon or attached thereto.

Chapter 154: Section 4. Delivery of copies of assignment; delivery of written account

Section 4. No assignment under section three shall be valid unless a copy thereof is delivered to the assignor by the assignee at the date of the execution of such assignment. No such assignment shall be binding on the employer of the assignor until a copy of the assignment and a written account, which shall conform to the requirements hereinafter stated, have been delivered to said employer. The account shall contain a statement of the balance due and of the sums of money received by the assignee, together with the date of every such payment and a statement as to whether such payment is interest, a payment on the principal, or, in case of a loan, a payment on the charge for making and securing it.

Chapter 154: Section 5. Standard form

Section 5. The standard form of assignment shall be as follows:

Know All Men by these Presents.

That I, of in the county of , for a valuable consideration, to me paid by , of , the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, do hereby assign and transfer to said all claims and demands, not exempt by law (which I now have, and all) which within a period of from the date hereof I may and shall have against my present employer, and against any person whose employ I shall hereafter enter, (for all sums of money due and) for all sums of money and demands which, at any time within said period may and shall become due to me, for services as . To have and to hold the same to the said , his executors, administrators and assigns, to secure a debt

(1) Of dollars (with interest thereon from , at the rate of per cent per annum), for money (or goods) actually furnished by the assignee amounting to dollars.

(2) Contracted prior to the execution of this assignment (or contracted simultaneously with the execution of this assignment).

(3) Three fourths of the weekly earnings or wages, which are dollars, are exempt from this assignment.

(4)1Ten dollars per week, as earned, is exempt from this assignment.

In Witness Whereof, I have set my hand thisday of .

Signed and delivered, in presence ofh. m.

M. Received and entered in records of assignment of wages in clerk's office of the of , book , page .

, Clerk.

1Clause (4) to be used in place of clause (3) only for assignment under section 2.

Chapter 154: Section 6. Trustee process; effect of assignment

Section 6. No assignment of future earnings shall be valid against a trustee process, unless before service of the writ upon the alleged trustee the assignment has been recorded in the office of the clerk of the town where the assignor resides at the time of such record.

Chapter 154: Section 7. Effect of assignment

Section 7. Except as above provided, an assignment of wages made in accordance with this chapter shall bind all wages earned by the assignor within the period named in such assignment.

Chapter 154: Section 8. Deductions from salary

Section 8. None of the foregoing sections of this chapter, nor section one hundred and forty-eight of chapter one hundred and forty-nine, shall be applicable to or control or prohibit the deduction of labor or trade union or craft dues or obligations, or making deposits in, purchasing shares of, or for the repayment of any loan from any credit union established under the laws of the commonwealth or of the United States, or deposits in any savings bank, trust company, national banking association or co-operative bank, or subscriptions to a non-profit hospital service corporation established under chapter one hundred and seventy-six A, or to a medical service corporation established under chapter one hundred and seventy-six B, or to a charitable corporation, or payments or contributions of or toward the cost of or the premiums on any insurance policy or annuity contract or purchase of government bonds, or purchase of stock pursuant to an employee stock purchase plan, from wages of an employee by an employer in accordance with a written request made by the individual employee; provided, that no such written request, whether recorded or not, except in the case of labor or trade union or craft dues, shall be regarded as an assignment valid against a trustee process.

Whoever fails to send the labor, trade union or craft dues deducted from an employee's wages to the union within fourteen days of the date when the dues have been deducted or are due under the collective bargaining contract, whichever comes later, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars. The employee whose dues have been so deducted or an officer of the union to which the dues have been assigned shall have the right to swear out a complaint for any such violation. No such penalty shall be imposed if the employer has filed a petition in a court of civil jurisdiction for the purpose of determining to whom said union dues are payable. Any other money deducted from an employee's wages shall be paid over forthwith, but in no event more than seven business days from the date when the deduction has been made or was due to the employee, to the person, credit union, bank, insurance company or corporation named by the employee pursuant to the provisions of this section, unless there is a prior written agreement between the employer and the recipient named by the employee that provides that payment may be made at some other time or times.