Short answer. Only three. Article 113 bars every deduction from wages except an insurance premium the employer paid for a worker insured with his consent, union dues where check-off has been recognised or authorised in writing, and deductions the employer is authorised to make by law or by regulation of the Secretary of Labor and Employment.
What the law says
No employer, in his own behalf or in behalf of any person, shall make any deduction from the wages of his employees, except:
Labor Code, Article 113 — Wage Deductions. Read the full provision →
The rule is a prohibition with narrow exits
Read the article in the order it is written. The default is that no deduction may be made at all — not by the employer for itself, and not by the employer on behalf of anyone else. The three items that follow are exceptions carved out of that ban, and they are the whole list. That structure matters when your employer argues that a deduction is fair, or customary, or that everyone in the company accepts it. Fairness is not the test the article sets. The question is whether the deduction fits one of the three named exceptions.
What the three exceptions are
The first is an insurance premium: where the worker is insured with his consent by the employer, the employer may recover what it paid as premium. The second is union dues, but only where the right to check-off has been recognised by the employer or authorised in writing by the individual worker. The third is the open-ended one — deductions the employer is authorised to make by law, or by regulations issued by the Secretary of Labor and Employment. Statutory contributions and withholding tax sit here, because a separate law directs them.
The deductions people are most often surprised by
Nothing in the article lets an employer help itself to your pay for cash shortages, breakages, unreturned equipment, customer refunds, penalties under a company policy, or the balance of a loan, simply because it thinks you owe the money. A debt you genuinely owe your employer is a real debt; it is just not something the employer may collect by taking it out of your wages under this provision. The same goes for uniform costs and training expenses. If someone points you to a company handbook as the authority, the handbook is not law or a regulation of the Secretary.
Working out whether your own deduction is lawful
Start with your payslip and match every line against the three exceptions. Deductions that are not itemised at all are the ones to press on first, because an employer that cannot name the reason usually cannot name the authority either. Then find whatever you signed at hiring — a consent to insurance, or a written check-off authorisation, is what makes the first two exceptions available, and your copy will show its scope and whether you may withdraw it. What you signed, and what was actually taken, are the two documents a lawyer will want to see.
Related provisions
- Labor Code, Article 113 — Wage Deductions
- Labor Code, Article 116 — Withholding And Kickbacks Prohibited