Pay Deductions Quiz: Uniforms for a minimum wage employee.

You hire a minimum wage employee to work as a cashier at your auto parts store. The employee signs an agreement to have $20.00 deducted from her first check to cover the cost of a uniform. You then, as agreed upon, deduct $20.00 from the employee's first check to cover the cost of the uniform.

Have you violated any Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requirements?

Here, you have violated the FLSA's requirement that a nonexempt employee be paid the minimum wage for each hour worked. It makes no difference that the employee agreed to the deduction. Because the employee is a minimum wage employee, there was nothing that could legally be deducted from the employee's wage to cover the cost of the uniform. Any deduction puts the employee below the minimum wage level.

Modern Business Associates frequently deals with payroll issues. As a Professional Employee Organization, our clients rely on us to help them effectively deal with these kinds of topics including deductions and minimum wage laws.