Under the Pennsylvania laws that govern paychecks, your employer has various obligations to you to ensure you get your full paycheck on time. If you are not receiving the money you have earned at the time when you should be receiving it, then you should learn about the laws that apply to you.
As an employee, these laws impart many rights to you. If it turns out that your employer has violated your paycheck rights, you may need to initiate legal action to obtain a remedy.
Pennsylvania allows employers to choose how often they pay their employees, provided the paydays are regular and designated in advance. If your employer fails to designate the regular paydays in advance, they are legally required to pay you your wages within 15 days from the end of your pay period.
For instance, suppose you are paid monthly, but your employer tries to pay you on a different day every month. The date for paying employees must be regular – the same day each month. Since they have not set up a routine regular system, they must pay you no later than 15 days after the end of each month that you work for them.
Whether you are terminated from your job or quit, you are entitled to receive your final paycheck by the next scheduled payday.
No laws in Pennsylvania require employers to pay out unused vacation or sick days. Instead, your financial compensation for those days depends completely on the company’s policy and the employment contract you have. So, if your contract states you should be paid for unused paid time off, that amount should be included in your final paycheck.
Wage garnishment is a special arrangement that allows an employer or creditor to access some of an employee’s wages and collect them to pay the debt. If you owe a creditor, the creditor can go to court, obtain a decree against you for nonpayment, and then can garnish your paycheck. For example, If a creditor is seeking to collect for a type of personal debt, such as unpaid credit card or hospital bills, they have to go to court first and get a court judgment. Once the creditor has secured the court judgment, they can garnish your income to pay off the debt.
Pennsylvania limits the types of debts that can be garnished from wages. These include spousal support, back rent, divorce-related obligations, and court-ordered restitution for criminal activities.
An automatic garnishment can be placed on your wages for specific debts, including back child support, defaulted student loans, and back taxes.
Imagine that you damaged or lost your employer’s property. Your employer can deduct that cost from your paycheck through wage garnishment. However, your employer will have to go through the court process first. Before your income can be subject to garnishment, your employer has to sue you for negligence and win a court judgment against you.
After they obtain the judgment, your employer will have the authority from the court to have your paycheck garnished until the debt is paid off. Depending on the situation, the employer may send the payment amounts directly to the court or work with an outside party to manage the funds for them.
Your employer cannot withhold your paycheck from you under any circumstances. If you have problems obtaining your paycheck, you can file a complaint with the appropriate agency, such as the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Bureau of Labor Law Compliance. You also have the right to go to court and sue your employer in a private lawsuit for your unpaid wages.
As mentioned, that could be an individual suit brought by you directly against your employer or a class action lawsuit where you sign up to be part of a large group of employees who have received similar problematic treatment.
You may need to file a wage and hour lawsuit if your paycheck is incomplete or missing. This is especially important if the paycheck issues are repeated over time or ongoing. The court will investigate to determine the cause of the violation and will provide a remedy for all affected employees.
If many workers have had the same problem with their pay – typically, wage rate issues, hours worked, overtime pay, and other similar subjects – the lawsuit may be filed as a class action suit. In a class action suit, a group of people who have the same or similar complaints band together and sue the defendant as one entity. If the defendant loses, the defendant will have to make a very large payment to cover all owed to the whole group of people.
A class action suit can be very helpful if the amount of money you would individually sue over is not high – particularly if it is not high enough to be economically practical to file your lawsuit. By uniting your claims with your co-workers, the group members share all the costs of bringing a lawsuit, and the amount of damages they can be collectively paid can be very high.
If you borrowed money from a third party, you can choose to have your employer pay off the debt directly from your earned wages. However, you need to give your employer written permission before they can take the money from your paycheck.
Employers in Pennsylvania are prohibited from discriminating against their workers or against candidates for employment. For instance, employers are not allowed to withhold paychecks from an employee solely based on their race, age, sex, religion, national origin, political affiliation, pregnancy status, or based on their medical disability or condition. In cases involving discrimination, filing for a remedy with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may be necessary.
You must assert your rights if your employer is interfering with your ability to get your paycheck. An employment lawyer in Pennsylvania can fight on your behalf for the paycheck amounts you are owed. When you bring them your problem, an experienced local attorney can help you determine your next steps.
Your attorney will advise you regarding what documentation you should collect as evidence and can help you file a complaint with the necessary agencies. Further, should you need to take private legal action against your employer, your attorney can initiate a civil lawsuit on your behalf and represent you in court as needed.
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