As a restaurant employer, may I charge for routine drycleaning of the mandatory uniform shirts that I have supplied at no cost to our server staff?
We are located in Alabama and are opening an new upscale restaurant.
The problem with having our employee's launder their own uniform shirts is in the consistency of this method. Variations in self laundering include: wrinkles, fading due detergents and/or bleach, shrinkage due to drying, ect... Our point would be that if they are professionally laundered they would remain consistent in apprearance, last longer, and provide a more professional look than self-laundering.
Thanks for your input.

Normally an employer can not deduct for uniforms (purchase/maintenance) on a tipped paid employee. This deduction would cut into the applicable minimum wage of the employee.

See this link under typical problems #3...
http://dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/printpage.asp?REF=whdfs16.htm