It is not uncommon for employers to deal with cash shortages when their operations involve employee use of a register, money till, or cash box. Some employers automatically attribute any shortage to the employee operating the register at the time that the short is found. This approach raises concern under Hawaii’s Payment of Wages law, however, and deducting the shortage from an employee’s wages is not the proper course of action in most cases.

The Payment of Wages law prohibits an employer from deducting a cash shortage that is found in a register, money till, or cash box that is used by two or more people. An employer may be able to make a deduction in a limited circumstance, however, if it can show that (1) the money till, cash box or register was under the sole control of a particular employee throughout the duration of his or her shift, and (2) the employee had an opportunity to account for the money at the beginning and end of the shift. The reality of business operations in a customer-facing environment often preclude employers from being able to show that no other employee jumped onto the assigned employee’s register during his or her shift. Absent such a showing, however, an employer would be in violation of the Payment of Wages law by taking a deduction from an employee’s wages in these circumstances. If an employer could make such a showing, it would also need to obtain written authorization from the employee to take the deduction. See Haw. Rev. Stat. § 388-6.