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Employees are often expected to pay out of pocket to do their jobs. You may use your personal vehicle to travel between work locations, pay for gas or parking, buy equipment, use your personal phone, buy supplies, or cover other costs that come with doing your job. Over time, those expenses can add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. When your employer expects you to pay for costs that are really part of doing the company’s business, you may have questions about whether those expenses should have been reimbursed. The answer depends on the type of expense, your employment arrangement, how you are paid, and whether making you absorb the cost causes you to receive less than the wages required by law.
The James Hawkins Firm represents employees in Bellevue and throughout Washington in wage and hour disputes, including claims involving unpaid wages, improper deductions, and unreimbursed business expenses. For more than 25 years, we have protected employees’ rights and held employers accountable when their pay practices cross the line.
Business expense reimbursement generally involves money you spend because of your job rather than for your own personal benefit. For example, you may be required to use your own car for work, purchase tools or equipment, pay for parking or tolls, use your personal phone to communicate with customers, or spend your own money on supplies needed to perform your job. Some employers have policies that reimburse these expenses. Others may tell employees that certain costs are “part of the job.” But an employer’s policy is not always the whole story.
Washington law does not generally require private employers to reimburse every ordinary business expense an employee incurs. However, important wage protections can come into play when an employer shifts business costs to workers. In particular, an employer generally cannot structure pay or deductions in a way that causes an employee to receive less than the minimum wage required by law. Federal wage law can also limit an employer’s ability to make employees bear business expenses when doing so cuts into required minimum wage or overtime. That is why the details matter.
There are several reasons employees may end up paying work-related expenses. Sometimes an employer has an unclear or poorly administered reimbursement policy. Employees may not know what they can submit, or managers may tell workers not to bother submitting certain expenses. In other situations, an employer may intentionally shift costs onto employees because it saves the company money. For a large company with hundreds of employees, even a relatively small expense can become significant when multiplied across the workforce. A few dollars in mileage, equipment, phone use, or other costs per employee can represent a substantial savings for an employer over time. Some employers may also assume that employees will not complain. Workers may be worried about losing their jobs, upsetting a supervisor, or being viewed as difficult. Sometimes the problem is connected to how an employee is paid. A company may pay a worker a set amount and expect the employee to cover work-related costs out of that pay. If those expenses effectively reduce the employee’s wages below the legal minimum, the issue can become a wage violation. Don’t assume an expense is “part of the job” without looking at the bigger picture.
The types of expenses involved can vary significantly by job and industry, but these are the most common types we see in Bellevue.
Employees who drive for work may use their own vehicles to travel between job sites, visit customers, make deliveries, attend meetings, or perform other work-related tasks. Gas, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, parking, and tolls can make using a personal vehicle expensive. Whether an employer must reimburse these costs depends on the circumstances. We can examine how much driving you were required to do, what you were paid, what expenses you incurred, and whether those costs affected the wages you were legally entitled to receive.
Some workers are expected to provide their own tools, equipment, or supplies. Construction workers, technicians, mechanics, healthcare workers, service employees, and others may spend their own money on items needed to perform their jobs. An employer may sometimes require employees to provide certain tools or equipment. But there are limits on when the employer can shift the cost to the employee, particularly if doing so reduces required wages or overtime pay.
Your employer may expect you to use your personal phone to communicate with customers, supervisors, coworkers, or dispatch. You may also be expected to use your personal internet connection or computer for work. If work requires regular use of your personal resources, the cost can add up. We can examine whether your employer required you to use those resources, how often you used them for work, and how the company handled those costs.
Employees may also pay for parking, tolls, transportation, or other costs while traveling for work. These expenses can be particularly significant for employees who regularly travel between job sites or meet with customers throughout the Bellevue area and beyond. Whether reimbursement is required can depend on the circumstances and the laws that apply to your employment.
Some employers require employees to purchase clothing, supplies, equipment, or other items needed to perform their jobs. Not every required purchase creates a legal right to reimbursement. But if an employer shifts costs to employees in a way that violates wage laws, you may have a claim. The important question is not simply, “Did I spend money for work?”. The bigger question is whether the employer’s pay practices and expense requirements violated the law.
This is where business expense claims can become more complicated. An employer may argue that an employee agreed to pay certain costs or that the expense was simply part of the job. But an agreement does not necessarily allow an employer to violate wage laws.
Washington’s wage statutes restrict certain deductions and prohibit an employer from willfully paying an employee less than the amount the employer is legally required to pay. RCW 49.52.050 addresses willful withholding of wages, while RCW 49.52.070 can provide double damages for certain violations. Washington’s rules also limit deductions from employee wages. Some deductions are allowed, while others are subject to specific requirements, including restrictions on deductions that reduce wages below the applicable minimum wage. This means the same expense can have different legal consequences depending on the employee’s pay, the nature of the expense, and how the employer handled it. That is why simply looking at a receipt may not tell you whether you have a claim. Our team can take a deeper look.
At the James Hawkins Firm, we look at the entire picture. We may review your pay records, expense reports, receipts, employment agreement, company policies, time records, mileage records, communications with your employer, and other documents that show what you were required to spend and how you were compensated. We also want to understand what actually happened at work.
These details can make a major difference. We can also look at whether the same policy affected other employees. If a company has a standard practice of shifting business expenses onto its workforce, the problem may extend far beyond one employee.
If you have a valid claim, the amount you may be able to recover will depend on the facts and the laws that apply. Potential recovery may include unpaid wages connected to unlawful deductions or unreimbursed expenses, unpaid overtime, statutory damages or penalties, interest, and attorneys’ fees and costs where available.
In certain circumstances, Washington law may allow an employee to recover twice the amount of wages unlawfully withheld under RCW 49.52.070. Whether double damages are available depends on the specific wage violation and the circumstances, including whether the employer’s conduct was willful.
The amount can become significant when an expense was incurred repeatedly over a long period of time. For example, an employee who regularly spends money out of pocket for work may not think much about a $20 or $30 expense at a time. But if those costs occur every week for several years, the total can add up quickly. Our job is to identify those expenses, determine whether they were improperly shifted to you, and calculate what you may be entitled to recover.
Business expense problems often stem from company policies. If your employer tells every employee to use a personal vehicle without properly accounting for the cost, requires everyone to purchase their own equipment, or makes the same deductions from everyone’s paycheck, other workers may have the same claim. That can be important.
The James Hawkins Firm has extensive experience handling cases involving groups of employees who were affected by the same unlawful employment practice. If our investigation shows that other workers were treated the same way, we can determine whether a class or collective action may be appropriate. A larger case can let employees with similar claims challenge the same company-wide practice together, rather than forcing each worker to take on the employer alone. You do not need to find the other employees yourself. You do not need to know whether your situation qualifies as a class action. We can investigate that as part of evaluating your case.
Figuring out whether you are owed money can be difficult, especially when your employer controls the records showing how you were paid and what expenses you were expected to cover. That is where we come in. Our attorneys can investigate how your employer handled business expenses and whether those practices violated Washington wage laws. We can examine your pay structure, expense policies, reimbursement records, time records, pay stubs, receipts, and other documents that may show what you paid out of pocket and how it affected your wages. We can also help determine the full amount you may be entitled to recover. That may include unpaid wages, overtime, damages, penalties, interest, and attorneys’ fees and costs when available under the law.
If your employer disputes your claim, we are prepared to push back. We can negotiate with the company and its lawyers, pursue the matter through litigation when necessary, and work to hold the employer accountable. And if the same expense or pay practice affected other employees, we can look beyond your individual claim. We have experience handling class and collective actions and can investigate whether other workers were affected by the same policy. Our goal is not simply to identify a problem. It is to understand what happened, determine what you may be owed, and pursue the recovery you deserve.
We understand that paying for a lawyer can feel like another expense you cannot afford, especially when the reason you are contacting us is that your employer may have failed to pay you properly. That is why we handle qualifying wage and hour cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront and have zero out-of-pocket legal fees. Our fee is generally taken from the recovery we obtain for you, subject to the terms of your representation agreement. You can get your situation reviewed without writing a large check or paying a lawyer by the hour.
You do not need to be certain that your employer broke the law before reaching out. Maybe you have been paying for work expenses for months or years and assumed that was just part of your job. Maybe your employer reimburses some expenses but refuses to pay others. Or maybe you have never added up how much money you are spending just to do your work. You do not have to figure it out on your own. The James Hawkins Firm has been protecting employees’ rights for more than 25 years. We can review your situation for free, explain your options, and help you understand whether you may be entitled to money you have not received.
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