Walk It Through: The Last Paycheck
Due on demand, a penalty for each day up to 15, and the line between misconduct and inadvertence.
A hotel housekeeper is discharged at the end of a shift with the last week's wages unpaid.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One housekeeper's last shift. Quitting and its exceptions, the weekly work search, and the extra time for willful nonpayment in detail are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Final pay on demandWhen an employee is discharged, the wages actually earned and unpaid are due immediately on the employee's demand, and unpaid 24 hours after it, the employer is in default.
- RetaliationAn eviction, a raised obligation or a cut service imposed as a penalty for a tenant's good faith complaint of a violation or attempt to enforce rights.
- Employment misconductIntentional, negligent or indifferent conduct that seriously violates the standards the employer has a right to expect, the only discharge that makes an applicant ineligible.