[MUSIC PLAYING] This episode is brought to you by JIRA. Ever wonder how those big marketing campaigns that make headlines get delivered on time? It all starts with JIRA, the only project management tool you need to plan and track work across any team. Every step of that campaign is organized in one place, from launching the campaign all the way back to designing ads and writing creative briefs. Get started on your next big marketing campaign idea today in JIRA. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to our podcast, It's About Payroll. We're your host, Brian Escobar, and Walter William Duncan III. Whether you're new to the payroll game or a seasoned veteran, we have something for you. Welcome back, folks. This is episode 126 on It's About Payroll, 37 on It's About Your Paycheck. And we're talking Texas deductions today. But before we get into it, how are you doing, sir? Man, I am good. It's another Monday. It's almost October. It's 10. Quarter in. That's right, it's quarter in. Yeah, I'm going to need a gritty year in. It's time to start getting ready for that. For quarter fun. Yeah, for quarter fun. For all you employees out there, y'all need to go and update your addresses and your systems. If you have an employee self-service system, go update your address, update your tax withholding, and all that good stuff. And I almost seem like you were going to say update your resume. But some of you may have to update your resume if you look something new. Yeah, this is a good time for that, too. Update your resume. I heard somebody say, oh, it's not a good time for hiring. That's a lie. Every time's a good time for hiring. And companies don't wait to hire. They need somebody they put in the ad out to hire. What else? Yeah, see you got there. This is Hispanic Heritage Month. Yeah. It's September 15th through October 15th. Yeah, I always thought that was weird. Like, why is it not an actual month? It's 30 days, but it's not a-- You know what I'm saying? At least Black History Month has the month of February. Yeah. Why is Hispanic Heritage got to be all broken up? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I didn't make it. I know. I could talk snap about it, though. Yeah. And then October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as well. Oh, that's dope. Hey, God bless all those survivors. Yeah, I can't say they're the expletive, but F cancer. F cancer, y'all. We could say it. We could say that for sure. God bless the dead for all those who have passed. And we've lost for that, man. It's tough. Cancer sucks, man. F cancer, we're up. Yeah, man, what else, man? What else is going on? Man, I'll just get right into it, man, with my news update, then go for it. A brief news update. I'm sure a lot of you, whether you're an employee or payroll pro or HR pro, you've probably been seeing this in the news, there's a looming strike with the ports on the Eastern and Gulf ports that may be impacting us in the future. So they haven't until midnight to get a deal. Oh, midnight tonight? Midnight tonight. So a lot of-- I read an article out there. It said a lot of the rails are trying to expedite shipping and get stock-- stockable supplies and all that stuff. Because if this hits, they're saying that we could feel it as consumers, right? No, we will. Yeah. Maybe, we will. So there's an analyst out there, analysis out there that said that the cost could be $5 billion. Absolutely. Ooh, per day. Good gosh. Per day. But wait. [INAUDIBLE] Yeah. No, absolutely. I saw a TikTok post that dudes were already clocking out, like the shop steward or whoever the leader on the floor was like, yo, if you're in union bubble buck, clock out, let's go. It's time to go. Yep. And that's what they're saying. Stock up on Ken goods now. Stock up on those non-perishable and stuff. Because look, they're saying they're making progress. They're doing updates hourly. So they're saying they're making progress. So there's a chance that they would get something done by midnight tonight. It's always better to be safe than sorry. I mean, it'll be ugly tomorrow at the grocery store if this happens, if they're going to make a man at the stop before I go to work, you know, do some things. Yep, get some look, man, I tell her it is. I told my lady, I was like, hey, we'll get some rice and beans, stuff like we enjoy eating anyway. We got some frozen veggies. Ramen, some ramen, some simple things that we can just stock up on and have. That's the case. Oh, yeah. Look, some of the posts that I saw, they said, where are we, Tom? Because we rambling on. Some of the posts I saw was like given timelines on things, like, you know, we like a week or two before this starts going down. Stuff like that. But people are going to panic, and not everybody's like us, that we're watching all this news and consuming all the news. All they're going to hear is, look, that's going to cost me us and stuff like that. And before I pass the baton over to you for your updates, there's two things I want to point out is they said that shipping fees may be lumped in into the consumer, the prices that consumers pay, so the consumer costs. So they may, like, because stuff is not being shipped, like, increase prices and put that amount into how much we're paying for stuff. Supply and demand, right? That's crazy, right? And so the conspiracy theorists in me is, man, the timing of it is just like crazy. Like, the Fed just decreased. Dropped. The other by what was half of a percentage? Like, point five. I don't know, but I remember they dropped it by something. Yeah, it was a pretty large amount, as they said, right? And so now it's just OK. Look, but these people-- It's funny, right? Because, well, it's not funny. It's funny, but this all goes into your paycheck. This is a time where you need to go and hit Costco, hit BJ's, hit Sam's Club, hit Walmart. You know what I mean? If you're trying to stretch your dollar here-- Yeah, and good point is that you can shut up at Sam's without a membership too. Really? Yeah, and you can-- Sam's, I think-- Oh, I didn't know that. You can shut up at Sam's with other members too. Most of them will let you do that one-- that first day trial, right? You can try it out today, type of a guest thing, or whatever. Everybody knows somebody with a membership. Go ahead and hit them up, you know what I mean? Walmart, you do not need a membership. People don't like going to Walmart, but Walmart has great prices, and you could really stretch a dollar. Anyhow. Yep, so there's a 10% fee, so you just need it. You're going to go in-- Oh, they'll give you a 10%-- They'll give you a 10% fee, yep. It's not bad. You're saving money by going to the big box places. Just the point is, if you're worried about this and you are tight budgeted, right? Go try to stretch your dollar, get those non-perishable, go get the things that'll-- Hey, your electricity is not going anywhere, so let's keep some sanity in mind here, right? Our electricity is not going. The grocery store is not closing, right? None of that, but stuff may run out. And it's going to take a while before all these places run out of everything. You know what I mean? We got to keep our sanity. You know what reminds me of? It takes me back, and then you can go with your updates. It takes me to pandemic times. People are popping up on top-- Absolutely. TP, and all the-- What? Every time they were just talking up on all that stuff. People were fighting at the stores. It was crazy, pandemonium. Yep. Yeah, no, for sure. No, this is worthwhile to talk about and to shoot. There's never really not going to post until next week. So hopefully, we're not in this stage anymore. All this be a moot point. Yeah, hope not. Yeah, just keep your sanity. Keep your wits about you. Understand really what's going on. It's the products that are a threat of being delivered. Hi there. I'm Peter Zulman. I'm a co-host of the Inside Job Boards and Recruitment Marketplaces podcast. And I'm Stephen Rothberg, and I guess that makes me the other co-host. Every other week, we're joined by guests from the world's leading job sites. Together, we analyze news about general niche and aggregator job board and recruitment marketplaces sites. Make sure you sign up and subscribe today. Pay attention to the news, pay attention to the things. But anywho, I did a rundown style for mine here. I'm not going to get into depth. The links will be in the show notes. The first one is Remote Rage. And Amazon amongst a bunch of companies now are jumping on the back-to-office trend, mandating people back to the office. And there's some employees at Amazon that are just in a rage about it. So that's one of them. And then City Scrutany, Citibank-- Citibank, oh wow. Yeah, Citibank is tightening the security and monitoring of employees on misconduct and things like that. I think we read the article, leaning toward they having problems with third party, with contractors. As we've seen before, when you hire third party people and vendors and outside, you have good control on your employees. But these third parties, these vendors, they are the ones who present a risk to your security and a risk to your policies and procedures. So they're really scrutinizing that, and they're trying to make it like, hey, if you work here for us in any capacity, you've got to adhere to these rules. So there's some City Scrutany out there. And then the last one is Tesla Home Invasion. Tesla is cracking down on sick time in Germany. They are literally visiting people's houses who claim they're all sick. Yes, bro, that's the article. I don't know if it's true or not, but the article is-- that's what it says. They're visiting people home. I've only heard of those things in court cases where somebody's suing the company for disability or I broke my back, but then the investigators catch them putting up the shutters and doing things around the house while they claim to be hurt. I've heard about it in that respect and those dynamics. But just, hey, I'm home sick for the week, or whatever. You knocking on doors because people are crazy. I just pulled it up. It says they're going there to appeal to the employee's work ethic. Wow. Wow. Tesla Home Invasion. That's crazy. Anywho, yeah, it's crazy, bro. I saw all these things and I was like, y'all, you know what? I'm sharing all this nonsense craziness, man. Go, bro. Go on. Before we get into the main topic, let's pay the bills. Shout out to Time Track Go. Time Track Go has introduced an innovative new feature designed to simplify time tracking for both the exempt and non-exempt meaning salary and hourly employees. And this feature aligns with the recent changes in the FLSA, the Fair Labor Standards Act, for salary and employees. By automatically calculating standard 40-hour work weeks and accurately determining overtime when necessary, Time Track Go ensures precise employee time while maintaining accurate PTO balances. Additionally, the system can identify instances where non-exempt employees may not have reached the 40-hour threshold. To learn more, please contact Time Track Go at 888-321-9922 or visit www.timetrackgo.com. That is T-I-M-E-T-R-A-K, go.com. Let's go. - Let's go. So again, our main topic today, we're talking Texas deductions. We've been on a, we're gonna be on a state thread and maybe we'll break it up every now and then you throw some true crime and now I was feeling the true crime vibe early. I was like, oh, we gotta do a true crime. So maybe on the next one, we'll do true crime and then get back to it. But we've finally taken up that mantle of delivering the state-by-state tax gems, the goodies, the nuggets, the free game that we need to empower employees. If you work in Texas, if you're a W2 employee in Texas, here's what you need to know. You must give consent in Texas for Texas deductions, meaning in Texas, an employee's paycheck is strictly regulated under the Texas payday law. So an employer can only deduct wages for certain conditions, easy as one, two, three. One is court-ordered deductions. Think child support, think alimony. Two is deductions required by law. Think what's in your paycheck already? The federal deduction for taxes, social security, Medicare, right? And three is written consent for the employee and this is the catch-all. If you give written consent. - When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouth-watering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices, plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points. So you can get big flavors and big savings, king supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. - They can take it out of your check, but you have to give written consent. So think about one, two is mandated, but three, you as an employee must give written consent. So think about that, look at your check and say, wait a minute, what's coming out of my check and make sure the deduction codes that are coming out of your check. I've told this story many times, I had an employee once upon a time that went a whole year with getting the wrong state deducted from their check. And then at the end of the year when they went to do taxes, they were like, oh my God, the state. Now, this wasn't an illegal deduction, it was an erroneous deduction because the employee didn't catch it, right? So these are little things, but if you're not paying, the point is pay attention to your check. And if you're in Texas, it's legally bound. These things don't come out. Now, medical benefits also, that's a written consent, by the way. You're signing off on medical benefits. You're saying, I want, if it's digital, or if it's in paper, when you do open enrollment, you're giving written consent to get those medical deductions taken out. In Texas, you must consent. - Yeah, great stuff, man. So for me, let's talk about two different things. One is wage overpayments, right? So that happens, it happens in payroll. Some of my forgot the clock out as an employee and the manager didn't miss it during time edits, especially got overpaid, and how you have to take those funds back. In Texas, you still need to get written employee authorization, as Brian was speaking to, right? So it is legal, it is permissible, under the FLSA, as long as the employer documents, those wages that are paid, even if that deduction reduces the employee's pay, below minimum wage. - Oh, wow, that's crazy. - The employer can take it. - 'Cause they were giving written consent. - Yeah, consent. - And then also, something that I found interesting is that there's deductions that an employer can take, and this is good for U.S. employees, for the employees that are listening. - Yeah. - The Texas employees that are listening, that employers can deduct for fees such as interests on loans and admin fees that are classified as employer cost, right? - Yes. - So of an employer loan you money, some employers do that. - Yeah. - They can charge interest. - Yeah. - Oh, yeah, and advance is really a loan, right? - Yeah, yeah. - So they'll have the employer payment. - The employer can do that. It goes back to the employee providing that authorization and writing, and the deduction doesn't reduce your pay, below minimum wage. And so, Texas employee law permits employers to charge certain administrative fees for punishments. You can charge $10 a month for child support. You can charge $5 a month for spousal support. - Oh, has like a fee to do it for you? - To process that. - Wow, that's crazy. - So it says, wow. - Wow. - So now the caveat is, while Texas allows for those fees to be taken, they may violate FLSA if it brings that employee's wages below minimum wage, right? - Oh, okay. - So that is one thing you want to think about. You want to understand. So employers generally cannot deduct costs related to business operations, such as tools, uniforms, transportation, if it were taking employees pay below minimum wage again, but it doesn't, then they can deduct for uniforms, those tools and stuff like that in Texas. So, FLSA, just for your payroll pros, if you're new out there, or even if you may know this, or you may not know this. - Well, deductions that benefit the employer, such as uniforms are considered part of cost of business under FLSA. So you might want to check out FLSA and see what it says about deductions and that benefit the employer and what the deductions are classified or what those things are. So you want to find out what that is. So one of the key points for compliance for employers is, as Brian and I spoke to, a written authorization. It's essential for deductions. And you want to be mindful of deductions that could violate minimum wage laws or impact over time pay. But in this case, you might want to consider getting legal counsel. It's recommended, right? - Yes, yep. - It's a clarity. - It's a clarity, because a lot of these issues are complex with these wage-- - Especially if the company's pushing back and they don't want to help you understand, like what, oh, let me even dial up a lawyer. And you may need to know, as the employee, what is considered written? Is that, do they mean that with a pen, like handwritten? Email, just email, and most times email-- - Now, no. - That's a acknowledgement that like, you got to respond in email. But that's a good point though, 'cause what I was gonna say is, be careful when you're getting a new job and you're signing all your new hire stuff. 'Cause sometimes it's buried in there, you know, what you're signing off on. Or it's in your handbook, how many times? I told you, at least $100 worth of knowledge in that handbook that you gotta read. And that right there, if you're signing off on your handbook and it's in your handbook, guess what? You just signed off on getting deductions from your pay without like prior notice. They could just start taking money out of your paycheck. So you gotta read your handbook, folks. And ideally, it's separate. It's a separate consent form. Hey, deductions, I've seen that as well. I think that's the better way companies should frame it as a separate form that says, hey, deductions from your check for what they draw out the reasons, what you can, and then you're signing off on that. And look, if you don't wanna sign it, you don't sign it. You know what I mean? And then when kind of go with it from there, lawyers will have a field day if, 'cause I know people are like, oh, we can't afford a lawyer for that. But leave me, they'll give you a free consult on that just because. And then if you don't wanna call a lawyer, if you wanna be like, oh man, I don't wanna do all that, threaten, ask help. If your company's not helping you, they should have no problem explaining these things to you. If they do have a problem, say, hey, you know what? I'm gonna have to call a lawyer then, thanks. That should prompt them enough to be like, whoa, whoa. - Yeah, but some of these companies, they don't. - Well, it, I think it's a bad employee at that point. If it gets that, if you get past that, that means your employees aren't trained well enough to understand, hey, you people who saw threatened lawyers, you gotta escalate that. Hold on, let me get my boy, let me get my manager to call you back, things like that. If you're an employee in that situation and you don't have the authority, do not piss that person off. You need to say, hey, hold, keep them on ice and say, lemme get my manager to call you back. We don't want you to, clearly, I'm not explaining it. You know what I mean? - Mm-hmm. - Yeah, get crazy. - Yeah. - But yeah, but I think that's a great call out in Texas is just, you must have consent. And there are a bunch of other states out there that are like that, as we roll on for employees, be aware of those little things in your states that are happening. There's ways to look it up. Hit us up on LinkedIn. If you're ever in question of what's going on in your paycheck, we can help. Hit us up on LinkedIn, we're glad to help. And look, do your research on what's allowed for as far as induction. So one of the key things is garnishments, right? Texas only allows certain type of garnishments. Your research on that. Like a lot of consumer debts, such as credit cards, medical bills and loans, aren't allowed. If they're originating in Texas, they aren't allowed in the state of Texas. So just keep that in mind. - Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. All right, so what do we got for safe talk tonight? - Safe talk. So navigating the Texas payday law can be difficult for employers and employees. How do you balance enforcing lawful deductions while ensuring employees fully understand and agree to them in writing? (coughing) - Excuse me. (coughing) Oh gosh, excuse me. (coughing) (laughing) Oh, one I found something that my daughter gave me that I'm looking for is employers send your employees right here to, it's about your paycheck. Look at an episode 126 and 37 respectively and they will learn some things, look up Texas. But beyond that, it's education, right? It's education, it's employee self-customer service. Employee self-service, I'm building out new systems. I'm like employee self-service. But no, it's employee customer service. And you gotta have that shout out to Gerard Hall because again, he's that dude that lit that fire for us to be like, oh wait, employee customer service, yeah. Let's do that. And as I continue to say, it's no disrespect to any employer that doesn't do it comprehensively because employers aren't really mandated to do it in any fashion. A lot of employers play it by request. When an employee brings it up, we can address it. But a lot of times with the masses, you don't wanna throw a lot of stuff out there. Employee handbook again. Employee handbooks were really long back in the day. But what do we think? We get them, we throw them in. Walt did the research. 67% of employees actively don't read the employee handbook. - Yep. - Basically 70% of your workforce has not read your handbook. - And they're doing it on purpose. - Yeah, 'cause they're like, I ain't reading that thing. And it's re, but I get it 'cause it's thick. It's, oh my God. What a lot of good HR leaders are doing is whittling it down to the stuff that actually needs to be communicated to employees. And that's still a lot. You're still gonna get 20, 30 pages. You know what I mean? But if it's organized properly, you can skim through the subjects, right? Okay, internet policy. Yep, you already know what that's gonna say. If you don't watch that, it looks at work. - You can do a quick search, control F. - Yes. - If you are, if it's digital, if it's digital, that's what I was gonna say, it's just digital. Are you ever, ever sent PDF and you're able to download it, you can do control F, do a quick search and find the topic that you wanna find out about it. Educate yourself about, right? So, look, it's just basically what you said. The employers being transparent and educating them, the employees. And the employees coming to an understanding of what is being done and what is legal for them, right? And something that we spoke to in one of our, it's about your paycheck episodes is that employers historically haven't done a good job with educating employees. That's still not an excuse for you as an employee to not go learn something. All the information is out there. You can go to your state website and find it. You can ask a tax professional. You can ask, you can get some free account consultation from some, they'll give you consultation. You can ask certain questions to say, hey, it is this legal, as my employer doing right by me. There are still ways and avenues for you as an employee to be empowered and to educate yourself in this, right? So, that's just my two cents on it, man. I think that's how you balance it out. The employee has to be open. The employer has to be open and willing to empower their staff and go ahead. - Hey, this is William Tynka, Work Define. Hey, listen, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about it inside the C-suite, the podcast. It's a look into the journey of how one goes from high school, college, whatever, all the way to the C-suite, all the ups and downs, failure, success and all that stuff. Get a listen, subscribe wherever you get your podcast. - It's a two, it's a two, it takes two, right? It goes both ways. The employers got to meet, you have employers have to, we have to meet our people where they are. - What does it, did you say about payroll and HR? Two sides of the same coin? - Two sides of the same coin. Yes, sir? Yep, that's right. And it's the same thing with employees, employers. And as an employee, you got, come on, look, I get it. We don't, none of us wanna, some of us get wanna work and don't have a problem with our work, but I think the folks that like their work, they end up getting thrown all the work, so there's, oh my God, there's too much now. But the majority of people don't wanna go to work every day. Oh, but you got, it's all about the attitude, right? What do you say your attitude determines your altitude, right? If you have a decent attitude about things, you're gonna go far at work because you spend more time at work, most of us spend more time at work or working than we actually do with our families. Yeah, that's true. So like, why would you want that experience to be a bad one? Your attitude determines that. You know what I mean? If you go into work causing issues and just being a mess and being negative and being a menace to things, right? Of course your day is gonna be bad and you gonna, what does Tabitha say? Hey, have a good day, but if you don't have a good day, don't go messin' up anybody else's day. You know what I mean? - Then it's the menace word. - Then it's the menace, don't do it, believe me. - I'm the age of myself with that, oh man. - Oh man, word, 'cause I've ever heard Dennis the menace in a minute. And I have been hearing about menace to society. I think it has hurt. Who was it? Cute, I heard Ice Cube and John Singleton on Drink Champs. I think R.I.P. John Singleton, he passed away, right? - I don't think, did he? Maybe. - I believe he did. Heaven forbid, I'm talkin' about it like that if he didn't. But anyway, yeah, he was on Drink Champs before that and they were talkin' about menace to stuff like this. I got menace to society in my head. But I just, I kind of equated to being a teacher's pet. Oh, y'all, teacher's pets, y'all, goody, too. - No, man. - Nah, man, believe me, if you have a good attitude, this is dude at the car dealership that I go to sometimes. Great attitude, man. Well, he ain't got the best job in the world, whatever, but he's got such a great attitude that you think he has the best job in the world. He feel like they wanna be like this guy. You know what I'm sayin'? It's all about your attitude on things. So my point is, it's a two-way street. Yes, your company should be meeting you where you are, but you should also be trying to-- - Yeah, and to do a little bit. To your point, it's contagious, the attitude. - Yes. - It's contagious, right? - Absolutely. - It could either push people away or it could affect others by into permeating, just really impact the new person that's comin' in. - Yeah, absolutely. - And it's like, yeah, the culture is everything. - Yeah, exactly right. So, yeah, that's it, folks. We hope you enjoyed the show. We love ya. Check us out on the Work Define Network now. - Big up to Work Define, man. We glad to be a part of the network. You'll be hearing more about it as we go along, and they got some great shows out there for folks. Stay tuned. And, yeah, shout out to Time Track Go. - As always. - And yeah, look out for the next episode. Maybe we'll do True Crime on the next one. - Yeah, that'll be good. - Yeah. That Wendy's one that you sent me that day. That was a good one. - Yeah, it was. - Yeah. All right, Joe. Peace. - Peace. - We'd love ya. (indistinct chatter) - Before we sign off, here are a couple quick things. Don't forget to follow It's About Payroll on LinkedIn, and it's about your paycheck on Facebook and TikTok. - Thank you for being part of our payroll community, and thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Until the next time, keep learning, keep growing, and most importantly, keep going. (upbeat music)
Join hosts Brian Escobar and Walter William Duncan II in this episode of 'It's About Payroll' as they explore the intricacies of payroll deductions in Texas, including the significance of written consent and legal implications of unauthorized deductions. Stay informed on the latest labor strike news impacting Eastern and Gulf ports and its ripple effect on consumers. Discover trends like Amazon's and Citibank's back-to-office mandates and third-party vendor scrutiny, and Tesla's controversial sick time checks in Germany. Learn about employee rights, the importance of updating personal details for year-end payroll, and insightful discussions on Hispanic Heritage Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Enhance your knowledge on these key topics to ensure a positive and informed work experience. Don't miss the introduction of our sponsor, TimeTrackGo, and its new time-tracking features aligned with FLSA changes.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/30/ports-strike-truckers-rails-billions-in-cargo-shutdown.html
REMOTE RAGE - https://fortune.com/2024/09/29/amazon-employees-angry-andy-jassy-rto-mandate/
CITI Scrutiny
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/citi-warns-some-employees-about-misconduct-by-staff-contractors-memo-says-2024-09-27/
Tesla Home Invasion
https://jalopnik.com/tesla-visiting-german-employees-homes-to-check-if-they-1851658861
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