The attack on workers is being extended to their paychecks.

Today in the House Commerce committee Chairman Anthony Brown and his pals Speaker O’Neal and lead conservatives are taking a break from directly attacking workers’ rights and refocusing to take a day to attack working Kansans’ paychecks, too.  HB 2627 (read full text here) — also known as paycheck deception — provides absolutely no protections for the employee.

Despite the fact that the Fair Labor Standards Act expressly forbids employers from reducing an employee’s wages below minimum wage or reducing overtime compensation for uniforms or any other tools or equipment required by an employer, House Committee Chairman Anthony Brown and his anti-worker gang are looking to see to it that the hardworking families in our state who are living paycheck-to-paycheck have to work even harder just to make ends meet.

HB 2627, as written, allows an employer to make additional deductions from an employees’ wages for overpayment without any notice and without any limits. It doesn’t stop there. The legislation doesn’t put any time limit on the employer’s ability to do make these deductions from an employee’s paycheck. That means weeks, months and even years later the employer could decide to take money out of their worker’s paycheck without a single mention of it to them. Furthermore, there is no provision for making the deductions over a period of time in the event that the total amount of the deduction is a substantial portion of the employees wages.

You pair the outcome of this bill with the other items in the Gov. Brownback lead republican agenda, such as Brownback’s 5,000% tax increase on low income families, and you can ensure that the working class in Kansas disappears due to not being able to afford to even make ends meet.

HB 2627 completey tips the scales against workers and provides no balance in the employer-employee relationship, the bill provides no requirement that the employer communicate with the employee about the situation in advance.

Minimum wage is minimum wage and there should never be laws made that put employers in a position to violate it.

Tagged as: Anthony Brown, HB 2627, Mike O'Neal, paycheck deception, Sam Brownback