Legal Question in Employment Law in New Jersey

security deposit from employees

I own a small face painting company in New Jersey. I send artists and princess characters to parties. Twice now I have had an employee no-show to parties at the very last minute - I got the call at the time the employee should have been at the event. In both cases, of course I lost the $$ from that gig and I offered the client a future gig at no charge. In both cases, it was clear the no-show employee could have gotten to the event if she had tried just a little harder. I want to protect myself. I believe that they had an amount of money to lose for not showing up, these incidents would not have happened. Can I legally do this? How do I present it to my employees? Thanks.


Asked on 6/16/08, 12:50 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Fred Shahrooz Scampato Law Office of Fred Shahrooz Scampato

Re: security deposit from employees

New Jersey Wage and Hour Law provides specific information as to under what circumstances an employee's wage can be withheld. I suggest that you go to this website for more information: http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/wagehour/content/wage_and_hour_compliance_faqs.html#q21

As a practical matter, I would steer clear of withholding payment of an employee's check for a no show. Why don't you consider issuing a zero tolerance policy to your employees? In other words, failure to show up to a job will result in termination.

Fred Shahrooz Scampato, Esquire

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Answered on 6/16/08, 1:33 pm


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