Who is responsible for maintaining the uniforms?
Once an employer, or the DOL on the employer’s behalf, decides that employee work clothes are indeed uniforms, federal law is crystal-clear: Employers who require minimum-wage employees to wear a uniform must pay for and maintain those uniforms. The employer may ask the minimum-wage employee to buy the uniform before beginning work, but the employer must then fully reimburse him or her no later than the next regular payday. Even though an employee’s tips may bring that employee’s total earnings well above the minimum wage, the employer is not allowed to require the employee to use tips to pay for the uniform. Workers who earn cash wages above the minimum wage may be charged for uniforms only to the extent that those charges do not reduce their wages below the required federal minimum. Employees are responsible for cleaning and caring for work clothes that do not constitute a required uniform. However, if an employee’s work clothes do constitute a uniform, the employer must pay for the
