Various laws, such as the Minimum Wage Act and Wage Payment Act, establish standards for the payment of wages. It is unlawful for an employer to deprive an employee of his or her wages.
If the employer fails to pay an employee wages owed, the employee may file a wage complaint with the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I). One example of a failure to pay wages owed is if a paycheck is denied for nonsufficient funds.
An employer that pays an employee with an instrument later returned for nonsufficient funds must reimburse the employee for fees charged by the employee's financial institution, unless the employer can show that it was returned due to an error.
The substitute bill modifies when a bank fee must be reimbursed, to be when a check is returned for nonsufficient funds, instead of when it is dishonored by nonacceptance or nonpayment. The condition that the employer demonstrate the error was specifically on the part of the financial institution in order to avoid liability is removed.
(In support) This is a simple bill. The vast majority of employers pay employees correctly, but if they do not, an employee should be entitled to recover fees charged by their bank due to the employer. Unreimbursed bank fees here are a denial of wages earned and the employer should make the employee whole. The Department of Labor and Industries gets around 220 wage complaints each year regarding a failure to get paid specifically due to a bounced paycheck. For the vast majority of these, the employer pays what is owed, but bank fees are not included in that amount, and this bill corrects that.
(Opposed) In some cases, a small business owner is not at fault for a bounced check. If a bank is at fault, but will not give a written confirmation, or if fault lies with another party, under this bill the employer would still be held responsible. The parties responsible for the failure are the ones that should be held liable, not innocent small business owners.