Money gets deducted from each paycheck for various reasons, but are all of them legal? Most employees know that the federal law mandates deductions from his or her paycheck for Social Security and federal income tax. These are normal deductions that the employee must authorize. Other deductions, except when a deduction is required to comply with a court judgment such as wage garnishments for child support payments, may require you to take a closer look.

An employer may deduct money for items that an employee has voluntarily authorized in writing such as union dues, insurance premiums, and charitable contribution. These deductions happen with the employees consent; however, other deductions should be closely scrutinized.

Some deductions are illegal, and some of the frequent unlawful deductions made by employers include:

Employee gratuities given for service to the public cannot be taken by the employer from the employee’s wages.
Cost of employee photographs that are required by the employer.
The cost for a bond of an employee must be paid by the employer.
The employer must pay for the costs of uniforms that the employee is required to wear. This includes wearing apparel with a distinctive design or color.
Medical exams required as a condition of employment or while employed must be paid for by the employer. This also covers exams required by federal or state law or regulation, or by a local ordinance.
The cost of meals cannot be deducted from an employee’s paycheck if they do not want to eat the food.
An employer cannot legally deduct money from an employee’s paycheck to cover the loss of company property, breakage, or shortages even if these are the result of simple negligence. California courts have held that these problems are just the cost of doing business. This means that the employee does not have to pay for accidents or when a customer leaves without paying their check.

However, if the employer can show that a loss of any type is caused by a willful or dishonest act or by gross negligence on the part of the employee, then the employer may have the right to deduct the loss. It should be noted that the employer cannot wantonly charge or assume that the employee’s actions were so grievous as to meet this standard.

If an employee believes that illegal deductions have been made from their wages, then they can file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner’s Office. The complaint should include all of the relevant facts and pertinent information. The complaint will be assigned to a Deputy Labor Commissioner who will review the file and arrange a conference or a hearing. Dismissal of the complaint is also a possibility. If this occurs, then the employee will not receive any help in recovering lost wages.

If you, or someone you know, are facing legal issues in the workplace United Employees Law Group has answers, Call Today for your free and confidential case review. Please feel free to CONTACT US with any questions about this blog or your exact situation.

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In California, employers are required by law to give their employees their final paycheck after the termination of their employment. According to California labor laws, payments should be made on regular paydays or at least twice during each calendar month. Any wages earned between 1st and 15th of the month in question should be paid before 26th of that month. Likewise, wages earned on the 16th day of the month should be paid before 10th of the following month. And if the employee had worked overtime, the employer is obligated by law to add the amount in the next regular pay period. The employer must also pay all the accrued vacation at the time of termination.

When an employee is laid off/fired, he or she is entitled to the final paycheck immediately. On the other hand, if an employee quits without giving notice the employer is bound by law to give the final paycheck within 72 hours. But, if you quit by giving three days notice to your employer, you should have your paycheck on the last working day. However, you’re not entitled to any payments on unused paid sick hours. And in case you have a mutual agreement with the employer to mail the last paycheck, he cannot force you to come to the office to pick it.

What are the unique rules to specific industries?

Film industry

All short-term employees involved in broadcasting or motion picture production should collect their paychecks from the employer the next regular payday. But, if the employees are working under a collective bargaining agreement, alternative provisions on final payments may apply.

Agriculture industry

Seasonal employees who work with canning or drying fish, vegetables or perishable fruits are entitled to payments within a reasonable time not exceeding 72 hours.

Live entertainment

Any employee working at live concert events should collect his or her final pay as provided in the bona fide collective bargaining agreement.

Oil industry

Employers who lay off employees engaged in oil drilling should be paid within 24 hours, excluding weekends and holidays.

Waiting Time Penalties

If you’ve been terminated and your employer has failed to submit the final paycheck, you’re a victim of wage theft. For each day the employer delays the last payment, you’re entitled to collect money as a waiting time penalty on your previous employer. In California, this penalty is calculated by taking the employee daily rate and then multiply by the number of days that remain unpaid (up to 30 days). Even after collecting final paychecks on time, employees may still be entitled to waiting time penalty if they did not receive all compensation.

If your employer has failed to give the final paycheck on time, you should seek the services of UELG (united employee law group) to file a lawsuit against him or her.

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What are tips and gratuities?

Tips and gratuities essentially mean the same thing. In their basic definition, they are used to refer to money voluntarily left for an employee of a business that is more than exceeds the set amount owed for the sale of goods and services.

Gratuities and tips are given as a reward for excellent services and ranges from few cents to the large amount that customers are willing to give. The tradition of giving tips is an accepted practice that has been there for quite long.

How does California law protect tipped employees?

The California law and courts have for long acknowledged that for a customer voluntarily leaving behind tips is a reward for the service provided and thus employers have no right to withhold the amounts due whatsoever.

Under the Californian labor laws, code 351 prohibits employers or their agents from withholding or keeping any tip or gratuity willingly given to an employee. The laws go ahead to state that tips and gratuities are sole properties of the employee or employees and in the regard, none has the right to withhold them back whatever the reason.

Tips and gratuities are very common in the hospitality industry if you work in this industry the California law protects your interest in regard to tips and gratuities. For instance, the law does not allow a tip credit. Section of 351 of the labor code expressly prohibits employers from crediting any tip or gratuity against the wages due for an employee.

As stated before, the law defines tips and gratuities as sole properties of an employee or employees, so for all employers covered under this law are required to pay tipped employees their full wages regardless of the amount they earn from tips. Any employee who credits tips and gratuities to meet the minimum wage requirements are violating the law and as an employee, you need to take action against such violations.

The law also allows employees covered under this law to impose a mandatory tip/gratuity policy. According to Californian labor laws, a tip left behind by a customer belongs to all employees who directly make contributions to the delivery of service to the customer(s).

Additional Information

The employees can also, for instance, agree among themselves to share or pool tips or come up with any policy regarding the tips since they belong to all the employees. The law, however, exempts floor managers in charge of firing and hiring of employees from partaking in any tip and gratuity policing.

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California is a state with many laws that are in favor of the rights of employees. The Federal government has a few laws that are helpful in terms of getting a paycheck in a timely manner, but generally, each individual state is responsible for ensuring that employees are paid in a timely manner. California is generally very employee oriented.

General Employee Rights

Many states have similar laws regarding the timely payment of employees, and California is no different. Aside from Alabama and South Carolina, all states require that payments to employees are made on either a weekly, biweekly, or monthly schedule. Most states also require that employers openly provide notice of their payday scheduling to employees. Different industries are often subject to different requirements; in Hawaii, for example, employees in the private sector must be paid once a month, while those in the public-sector must be paid on a semimonthly basis.

Defining A Pay Period

In California law, a pay period is defined as an amount of time that has been predetermined by you and your employer that counts towards a given paycheck. The important part here is that a pay period is predetermined and cannot be changed at the whim of your employer.

Frequency

In California, an employee must be paid at least two times per month. Administrative, executive, and professional employees can be paid once a month, but payment must be rendered by the 26th day of the month that they are working, including days off that they may have. Employers must always make sure that their employees are informed of the pay schedule in California, and are not allowed to operate outside of this schedule.

Resolving A Late Paycheck Problem

If you feel that your employer hasn’t been paying you in a timely fashion, there are steps you can take to resolve the issue. This process will not give you instant money; if you are short on cash it is important that you try to seek immediate restitution directly through your employer. If you have the time and resources to take a legal course of action, though, here are the steps that you’ll need to go through to resolve the problem:

1. Get in touch with your employer. It is possible that your delayed paycheck was simply an oversight. While this doesn’t necessarily make things right, it does make the problem easier to rectify.
2. File a claim with the labor agency in California.
3. File a lawsuit in small claims court.
4. Consider hiring an attorney who specializes in labor to assist you.
   

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There are several things you should know about reporting time pay in California. The law in California has different sections which are aimed at protecting the right of employees. There are different sections where the law protects you as an employee from different forms of exploitation.

Things you need to know about Reporting time pay in California

1. What is reporting time pay?

Some employees will call workers but the work can end up being assigned less than the normal work day work, in such a case, the employee will be paid for reporting to work. The law requires the employer to pay the worker for the time he worked and the rest of the hours will be paid under reporting wage rate. For example, if an employee will report to work and work for an hour instead of four hours, the employer will pay him on regular rates for the one hour worked and pay him based on reporting wage for the next three hours. If an employee reports to work and does not work at all, then the employer is obliged to pay for two hours based on waiting time.

2. Time paid as reporting time pay does not trigger overtime pay.

If an employer will be paid waiting time and the amount exceeds the normal pay rate, then the employer does not have to count the excess overtime. The law prohibits the act to avoid expatiation on employees.

3. Reporting time pay and meetings.

If the employer reports to work and he works for half the time he was supposed to work, then the employer can pay for the only time worked. There is debate on the amount the employee can be paid if he is called for a meeting during his work day and he was not on duty. But in normal cases the employee is paid two hours of normal work day as reporting time.

4. Exceptions to the reporting time requirements.

There are circumstances where employers are not entitled to reporting time payment. They include the following incidences:

When operation cannot begin due to threats to employer’s property, when civil authorities recommend for the work not to start

When public utilities fail to supply power or other amenities required for the running of the operations.

When acts of God such as earthquake cause an interruption which is beyond employers control.

5. What if the employee voluntarily leaves early?

If an employee leaves work early due to personal or other needs, the employer is not entitled to pay for the reporting wage.

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All employees must be able to know what their wages or salaries are a well as the exact amounts they take home when all deductions are factored. There are some paycheck deductions like social security and health insurance premiums that are legal but on the other hand, there are deductions that are very illegal. In the city of California, employers aren’t allowed to deduct several expenses from employees’ paychecks

* Items that can never be deducted

There is a basic rule in California stipulating that the employer must pay for all normal costs of running the business. He must never pass such expenses to the employee. Such expense must never be deducted from employees’ paychecks. These types of expenses include;

(a) Business expenses

Employees must be compensated for any loss that they suffer while doing any job. Employees must never deduct these business expenses from the paychecks of their employees. Such examples include gifts for clients, business meals, tolls etc.

(b) Cash shortages and breakages

An employer must never charge an employee for the losses that are caused by carelessness on the side of the employee. For instance, if an employee drops glasses in a restaurant business, the loss will be incurred by the business

(c) Tools and equipment

The employer must reimburse the employee for the items the employee purchases while carrying out business duties. Such item might comprise of hand tools or even uniforms

(d) Licensing and bonding

If employees must be licensed or bonded to work for employers, the employers must foot the costs. On the same note if an employer wants his employees to take fingerprints or even photographs, he must pay for the costs of all those items. Employees who are required to undergo medical exams as a condition for employment must be reimbursed such costs

(e) Tips

In California, tips are given to employees. Tips are not part and parcel of employees’ salaries. Tip sharing and pooling is allowed but employers and their managers must never participate

* Items that may be deducted

Employers may deduct expenses from employees’ paychecks only if they are allowed by the federal law or through collective bargaining agreements. Employers are also allowed to deduct health insurance premiums but they can only do this after getting an authorization from their employees in writing. This means that employees do not have the power to deduct any amount of money even if they owe such employees money

If employers advance money to their employees, they cannot make deduction for such advances unless such employees authorize in writing

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A good number of employees rarely understand why the money earned is not always 100% of the amount that an employer promises. This is simply because they do not take time to examine their pay stub. An employee’s pay stub is simply a part of the paycheck. The pay stub contains a lot of details about the salary received. Some of the details include:

The two categories of pay found on a paycheck

Gross pay

This is the initial amount earned by an employee prior to implementation of deductions by an employer.

Net pay

This is the amount that an employee is left with after all the necessary deductions have been made.

The deductions made from a paycheck

Medicare deduction

It is meant to serve Medicare insurance needs of an employee. It is computed as 1.45% of employees’ paycheck. The employer also aids the employee in addressing this deduction by contributing 1.45%.

Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) or Social security tax

This tax is levied to guarantee employees of monthly social security payment when they retire. For this to be realized, employees must be deducted 6.2% from their paycheck. The employer is also mandated to pay 6.2% to facilitate the social security of the employee.

Life insurance deductions

In some cases, the employer may furnish the employee with a life insurance policy. In such an occurrence, the employee may be required to pay a certain amount from the annual salary to keep the policy operational.

Federal tax (FIT tax or Fed TX)

This is the tax that an employee owes the federal government.

State tax (SIT or St TX)

This is the amount imposed on employees by some states. It is deducted from the paycheck.

Local tax

It is not a common type of tax but it imposed on employees residing in certain regions or counties.

Year to date

This section of the paycheck indicates the amount paid for various deductions at any time of the year.

Other deductions include:

Miscellaneous deductions

They take the form of union dues, charitable deductions and other stated mandated deductions.

Leave duration

The paycheck might also include details concerning sick and vacation leave that an employee is entitled to. Information about the number of time each kind of leave has been utilized is also indicated and the remaining duration.

Finally, employees need to make efforts to comprehend all the information shown on their paycheck. The information is necessary in helping them understand how their net pay is arrived at, how they will budget for it and the benefits they are exposed to as a result of paying for the deductions.

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If you look at your paystub and you’re wondering why you’re not getting as much as your salary is supposed to give you, then keep on reading. It is important to manage your finances and budgeting and a large part of that is understanding your paycheck stub and the deductions that occur every time you get paid.

What is Usually Included in a Paystub?

Different companies might print their paychecks in different ways, but there are always several key components that employers need to include on the statement by law.

• Gross wages: This is total amount of income you earned over the pay period. Pay periods are usually either bi-weekly or monthly, this is determined by the employer. If you are a salaried employee, this is simply your yearly salary divided by the amount of times. If you are paid hourly, the paystub would show your pay rate (your pay per hour) and the number of hours worked. Your gross wage would be these two multiplied together. Keep in mind that this is not the amount that you get paid, because it does not include deductions.
• Federal tax: Besides Medicare and Social Security, this is a cut of your paycheck that is taken by the federal government. If you remember back when you were first hired, you might recall filling out a W-4 form. This form indicated your tax situation (exemptions, status, and so forth) and let your employer know how much to withhold from your pay for federal taxes.
• State tax: Whether you have to pay state taxes depends on the state in which you are residing and working. California does participate in state taxes, and this money usually goes into funding for state programs such as public safety, public works, education, health, court justice system, and more.
• Local tax: This is less common, and will depend on the city you live in. New York and Washington DC are among the several cities that have this additional city tax.
• Social security: This money is set beside by the federal government in order to provide benefits for the elderly. When you retire, you will be able to use social security benefits in the form of a monthly social security payment.
• Medicare: Medicare is similar to social security in that a certain percentage is deducted from your paycheck, and when you retire at 65, this money is used to help cover health insurance.
• Other: You may see additional withholdings and deductions, such as life insurance premiums or retirement plan contributions, such as a 401K
• Net pay: This is the amount you get paid after all deductions have been made, the amount that is given to you on  your paycheck or direct deposit.

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California is one of the most protective states when it comes to the rights of an employee, including to be paid on time. The California laws on paydays and paychecks cover the information your employer must give with your paycheck, when you must be paid when you must get your final paycheck if you’re fired or quit the job, and what that final paycheck should include.

Unfortunately, in this imperfect world, some employers may break these fundamental laws and nobody likes dealing with issues at work. That is why you are likely to require a California employment attorney at some point and when it is time to make that phone call, we at UNITED EMPLOYEES LAW GROUP strive to make it as painless as possible.

California Payday Laws

Generally, employees in California have a right to be paid at least twice every month. The compensation earned from 1st to 15th of the month must be paid no later than the 26th day of the same month. On the other hand, the compensation earned from 16th of the month through the end of the month must be paid no later than the 10th day of the next month.

If an employer pays workers every week, every two weeks, or twice per month based on a different earning schedules, it may act under the California payday laws by paying workers for work performed within 7 days after the pay period has elapsed. For instance, an employer who pays his or her employees every 2 weeks is following the law as long as it pays the employees within a week after every two-week payroll period closes.

Employers must designate paydays which meet the requirements above and notify their employees of the date, time, and place they’ll be paid.

The laws give some exceptions for certain kinds of employees. For instance, administrative, executive, and professional staff (as defined by the overtime laws of California’s) may be paid only once a month, as long as they’re paid by 26th of the month and the paychecks includes their total salary for the month. Workers who work for a particular farm labor contractor must be paid each week.

Payroll Records Request

California workers are also entitled to scrutinize their payroll records within three weeks of a request to an employer. Moreover, you may request a copy of your payroll records, though your employer may charge you for affordable copying costs. In case your employer fails to provide you access to your records, you may be owed a penalty of $750 from your employer.

Rules for Final Paychecks

If you’re laid off, fired, or otherwise unwillingly separated from your job, you’re entitled to your final paycheck immediately (that’s, at the time of your layoff or firing). Your employer may not wait until the following scheduled payday or even the next calendar day to pay you what you’re owed. Your final paycheck must include all of your PTO or accrued, unused vacation time.

If you resign from your job and give your employer a notice of less than 72 hours, your employer must pay you within three days. If you provide your employer notice of at least 72 hours, you must be paid immediately on your final day of work. Like employees who’re laid off or fired, your final paycheck must include all of your PTO or accrued, unused vacation time.

To discourage the employers from delaying employees’ final paychecks, California allows any employee to obtain a “waiting time penalty” in the amount of his or her average wage for every day which the check is late, up to a maximum of thirty days.

The tenacity and experience of our employment attorneys can mean all the difference when it comes to the outcome of your California Labor Law Case. While several employment attorneys focus mainly on harassment or discrimination, our team knows all the ins and outs of the meal and break periods, overtime claims, and some other payroll related claims too.
We cover them all for a very good reason: many employers willing to break a single law are often willing to break another. Therefore, our California employment attorneys will examine your case from ALL angles in an effort to assist you to collect everything you’re owed.

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