Holding payroll check

[gwilmer]

My old employer is holding my final payroll check until property that is out of my control is returned (keys, etc.)... This is in the state of Washington...

Is this legal? Can payroll checks be withheld under ANY circumstances>

[buddy2bear]

Sometimes -- e.g., keys not returned, uniforms, company credit cards, etc. Contact your State wage & hour division and see what they can do. Or find those keys and return them!

[crager34]

If the property was issued to you, then it is your responsibility to return it. Consider what you said about out of your control. You lost the item...you gave them to another co-worker...what do you mean? I was contracted to a company, who said that I had some of their property. The company I worked for was holding my pay till I returned it. The company I worked for had no claim to that porperty, therefore could not hold my pay. As it turned out, the property was out of my control. I did not have it and they new it, so I challenged them to prove it in a court of law. I got my pay and the company I was working at backed off.