Can a California employer deduct a till shortage or breakage from wages?

The instinct is understandable — the till is short, one person was on it, and the shortfall came out of the business. California treats that reasoning as shifting the ordinary cost of doing business onto the person least able to absorb it, and does not allow it.

Section 221 is short and absolute in form: it is unlawful for any employer to collect or receive from an employee any part of wages theretofore paid. A deduction from a future cheque to recover a past shortage is the same act performed in a different order.

The recognised exception is narrow. Where the loss results from the employee's dishonest or wilful act, or from gross negligence, a deduction may be permissible — but ordinary carelessness, a miscount, a dropped plate or a simple mistake is not gross negligence, and the employer carries the burden of showing which it was.

Two adjacent practices fail for the same reason. Requiring an employee to sign a blanket authorisation in advance does not make an otherwise unlawful deduction lawful. And self-help — holding a final paycheque until equipment is returned — creates a separate and more expensive problem under the final-pay rules.