I would like to know the law on deductions from an employees final check. I have something that says "An employer may withhold from a terminated employee's final paycheck, an amount equal to the value of any property belonging to the employer which is not returned by the employee." The AZ Industrial Commissions website says "An employer may only withhold an employee’s wages when the employer is required by state or federal law, the employer has the employee’s prior written authorization, or there is a reasonable good faith dispute as to the amount of wages due, including the amount of any counterclaim, reimbursement, recoupment or set-off asserted by the employer." We are a construction company that issues cellphones, laptops, fax machines, etc. to our field guys. What legal actions do we have to make sure we get this property back?

I would pay attention to the website before "something". Where did that "something" come from?

The "something" is a booklet that was given to us by our insurance company. It also looks legit.

I'm not sure why your insurance company would know employment law. ;)

However, if you have written authorization, you can deduct if the property is not returned, but only to the extent that:

for nonexempt employees, the deduction does not take the employee below minimum wage nor reduces overtime pay (federal law, since the deduction would be for the benefit of the employer)

for exempt employees, the deduction does not take the employee below the required salary floor.