Paycheck deductions Nebraska

[Stacy Orozco]

My husband is a foreman/crew leadser for a local roofing company & if he takes gloves, shovels or any equipment from the shop to take to a job sight he is has deductions taken out of his check. The deduction is titled supplies, but these are not his personal supplies. These supplies are necessary in order to do his job. I have noticed as little as $5.00 to $8.50 deducted, his brother has had as much as $80.00 taken out. My husband states that he sometimes doesn't take new supplies, he has been making his crew use old supplies so that the deduction will not occur & it is still taken out. He was never told that these deductions would occur, I had asked him what the charge was about. Is this legal? Thank you, Stacy

[DAW]

This is going to be a very soft answer. Your state is not my state, so my answer is going to be federal law (FLSA) only. Some states have better laws then the federal law on deductions. However to my knowledge, CA is the only state that has a labor law that actually requires employers to pay for business expenses. Perhaps another responders knows the Nebraska deduction laws.

Federal law has some rules on deductions (see below). The problem is that federal law is more concerned with protecting minimum wage and overtime, but past that has a very broad idea of what employers can deduct. I could make an argument that the sort of things you discuss fall under the federal rules. It is not unusual for employers to make employees buy their own tools, equipment, clothes, cars and other things that arguably the employer should be paying for. To my knowledge (other then the MW/OT restrictions) there is nothing in federal law that helps your issue.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs16.pdf

[Betty3]

Nebraska statute 48-1230 - An employer may deduct, withhold, or divert a portion of an employee's wages only when the employer is required to or may do so by state or federal law or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction or the employer has written agreement with the employee to deduct, withhold, or divert.