Legal Question in Employment Law in Tennessee

Taking money out of an employees paycheck

I worked at a hair salon as a

receptionist and decided to quit. I gave

no notice. I had a key to the salon and

was instructed to return it. I made

contact asking if I could drop it off at

the owner's daughter's house since the

salon was closed. The daughter said

no. I left at 3 am the next morning to fly

to New York. When I got back home, I

got my check in the mail. It had a note

on there saying she was forced to

charge me for the locks being changed.

$80 was taken out of my paycheck. Is

this legal? I never signed any contracts.

Also, she had to rewrite my check in

order to take that money out because

the checks were already written prior to

her changing the locks. Is this worth

fighting for? It seems very wrong.


Asked on 12/04/06, 1:01 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
James R. Becker, Jr. Becker Law Firm

Re: Taking money out of an employees paycheck

I agree that this is not a good practice, but at the same time the employer has to protect itself. The protection is not from you, but from the other ex-employee who leaves with the keys and then may break back in to steal something of value. The policy is written protect against this type of situation.

To get to the issue of charging you for changing locks. One of the key questions is whether this deduction caused your wages to fall below minimum wage ($5.15 per hour). If so, the employer may have committed an illegal act. At the same time, however, you are arguing about $80.00. Given typical legal fees and expenses, it will probably cost you more to argue about the outcome (even though you may be able to ultimately recover these amounts) than to chalk this up to learning.

Read more
Answered on 12/04/06, 3:32 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Labor and Employment Law questions and answers in Tennessee