Employers Often Illegally Deduct Money From Employees’ Paychecks

Imagine a scenario where you leave your employment, and you are still owed your last paycheck. The check is slated to be paid to you in a few days or a few weeks.

However, you get a notice from your employer that your final paycheck will have some deductions, because of money that your (now former) employer claims is owed to it.

Can an employer do this?

The FLSA and Other Wage and Hour Laws

Federal laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and California laws, dictate that non exempt employees must be paid for time that they worked, and time and a half, for any overtime hours, generally defined as more than 40 hours a week.

But many employees also have agreements with their employers to, for example, return property after employment ends. Or, the employee may have borrowed money from an employer, or the employer may have fronted what it sees as unearned funds to the employee.

Now, the employer wants to be paid back, and sees your next unpaid paycheck, as a source to recoup the money that your employer feels that it is owed from you.

What Can be Withheld?

Whether it is your final paycheck or not doesn’t matter; what matters is what an employer can and cannot legally withhold from an employee’s paycheck.

Employers can withhold things that the government requires them to withhold, like taxes or agreed upon deductions for health insurance or retirement or pensions. That includes any court ordered wage garnishments.

The employer can withhold any overpayments that may have been previously made, but only if the amount deducted still leaves the employee with at least minimum wage.

Illegal Reasons Employers Deduct Money

But many employers will go beyond this and try to withhold money from checks for other reasons.

An employer may feel the employee took too many breaks or left too early or came in too late. The time card, or sign in sheet, is the measure of when the employee worked—not the employer’s subjective belief that an employee didn’t work when all indications are that he or she did.

Employers often try to deduct paycheck money because the employer may feel that the employee stole money, or because there is some cash shortage. But the employer cannot do this—the employer is not the unilateral judge and jury of guilt, and may not simply withhold paycheck funds from the employee.

What Can an Employee Do?

Employees who have paycheck funds deducted wrongfully, have a number of options. They can file a lawsuit under the FLSA and California wage and hour laws against the employer.

Employees also can make a complaint to the Department of Labor (DOL), which often will conduct an investigation into the payment practices of the employer.

Many of these remedies also include liquidated damages, allowing an employee to recover more than whatever money was actually deducted, and include the right to get attorneys fees.

Have you been paid for the hours you worked? If not, get help immediately.  Contact the San Jose employment attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today for help.

Source:

workplacefairness.org/deductions-from-pay/