Short Question: Is it legal for my employer to only allow a pay option that requires me to pay to access my paycheck money?

Background: My (new) employer offers 2 ways to get paid- a visa pay card, or Direct Deposit. I signed up for Direct Deposit (second day of employment) but was told it may take 3-4 weeks for it to take effect. In the meantime, I received the paycard. In order to access my money (or even get a balance inquiry) I have to pay a fee. Is this legal?

Are you talking about an ATM fee situation or a fee imposed by your employer to set up or administer the card?

Unfortunately, not all states have kept up with technology regarding pay cards. Massachusetts (at least as of the beginning of 2007, which is my resource publish date) is one of them.

MA doesn't even have a provision in the law that requires the employee incur no fee for diect deposit. So, it's likely that, if this is an ATM fee, it's is not illegal in Massachusetts.

I signed up for Direct Deposit (second day of employment) but was told it may take 3-4 weeks for it to take effect.

Holy smokes!

If we are processing pay today and I have the accurate information on your bank and your account number, your pay will be in your account tomorrow, even if you give it to me only minutes before payroll is processed.

OP's employer apparently pre-notes. So, if it's a biweekly payroll, that's at least one pay period, if not two, before the DD becomes effective.

Nope, it's a weekly payroll. The company is just really slow at anything remotely HR related. And especially if it's dealing with payroll.

Bummer to hear that the fee is legal. It is imposed by the card, but since the company doesn't give you another option, it sucks.

Thanks for the information.

I am coming up with a somewhat different answer. Per the BNA payroll library (a paid service). This is not my state, so I have no opinion beyond what is stated.

"Opinion: Under the Wage Act provisions, if a payroll debit card system were to provide timely payment, as detailed in G.L. c. 149, § 148, without deducting a fee for use or otherwise restricting employee access to their earned wages, that system would likely be deemed in compliance with state law. (Letter from Daniel Field, Chief, Fair Labor & Business Practices Division, Office of the Attorney General, 9/23/03)"

Thanks, DAW, my source did not reference that decision.

No real surprise. This is why I hate answering state questions other then CA. State rules can be pretty obscure and the only difference between our two answers are an opinion letter, which is about as obscure as state rules get (other then maybe court decisions). This is why I like using the paid payroll library services (APA, BNA, CCH, RIA). It is hard to find stuff like this on-line for free, and even if we can find stuff on-line for free, it might not be current or complete. If you cannot find a rule on-line, there is not way of telling if that means that there is no rule or just that we cannot find the rule. Ugly stuff.