Legal Question in Business Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Withheld Pay

Hello. You say that your first week of pay was 'withheld', but do not say when you were employed by this company. One possibility is that you just were released from this company and the company was not withholding the first week's pay, but was paying you in arrears, in which case you will receive a check in the pay cycle after you leave. In any event, the employer is obligated to pay you for all time worked unless there is a statutorily-allowed exception which permits them to withhold pay (these may--in certain cases--need to be signed/acknowledged by the employee in writing so you should check what you have signed with them, and even then some clauses may not be legally valid, i.e., the employer may be trying to do something that is esentially illegal, and illegal contracts are void). Upon dismissal from your job, the employer is required to pay you upon the next regularly scheduled pay date. A failure to do so can be a poor decision for an employer for several reasons, one being that it is very easy for you to file a claim with the PA Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor. When a claim is found for the employee, the employer pays treble damages--a big incentive to follow the law.