Can My Boss Dock My Pay For Mistakes?

If you have an accident or cash shortage, can your employer take it from your pay?

Jobs readers have lots of questions about employers who dock pay for mistakes or accidents. Here are two of them:

Hello, I work in Las Vegas, NV, and I'm trying to find out if my employer can make me pay out of pocket for a food mistake. I'm a food server and they're saying they have every right to make us pay. I understand if they have to reprimand us but making us pay for the mistake is not right! I've looked everywhere online and tried to look on the Nevada Labor board website and I can't find anything. I just see message boards some say yes and some saying no. I hope you can clear this up for me. For any reason if it is illegal what they are doing, how would one go about getting this resolved? Hope you can help.

And:

I have been with my employer almost 5 years. My employer has implemented a new policy that "fines" us if we make errors or if a piece of equipment is damaged, where we are assessed the cost of repair/replacement. We aren't told what was wrong or what we supposedly did and the money is simply deducted from our checks without explanation. It apparently is assumed that any such equipment problems is our fault, not simply a wear or software issue.

It appears to me that we are being taken advantage of, but I called the Dept. of Labor's local Wage & Hour office, since Alabama has no Wage & Hour division, and was told the employer could pretty much do as he pleased so long as he didn't pay below minimum wage.

Any suggestions?

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By Donna Ballman