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#DOL: Wage - Hour Home

Wage Hour Home

The Wage and Hour Division is charged with the administration and enforcement of the Indiana Wage and Hour laws. Some of the topics we cover include the Indiana minimum wage law, Indiana overtime issues, underpayment of wages and the Common Construction Wage act.

New Wage Payment, Wage Assignment/Deductions Law

On May 05, 2015, the Governor of Indiana signed into law HEA 1469 to be effective on July 01, 2015, which provides that an employer who fails to make timely payment of wages or withholds wages shall: pay the wages due, shall pay a reasonable fee for the plaintiff's attorney, and shall pay court costs. It further stipulates that if a court finds that the failure to pay the employee was not in good faith, the court shall order that the employee be paid an amount equal to two times the amount of wages due the employee as liquidated damages.

It also provides that an employee may assign wages for (choose to have deducted from his or her pay): 1) the purchase, rental or use of uniforms or equipment necessary to fulfill the duties of employment, provided that the total amount of wages assigned may not exceed the lesser of: (A) $2,500 per year ($48.08 weekly); or (B) 5% of the employee's weekly disposable earnings; (2) reimbursement for education or employee skills training, unless the education or employee skills training was provided through an economic development incentive from a federal, state, or local program; (3) an advance for payroll or vacation pay; and (4) merchandise, goods, or food offered by the employer, for the employee's benefit, use, or consumption, at the written request of the employee.

However, according to federal law (see FLSA Fact Sheet #16 at: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs16.pdf ), pay deductions cannot be made which reduce an employee’s wages below minimum wage nor may that deduction for the cost cut into overtime compensation required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

For information concerning Indiana Wage and Hour laws, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions. For your convenience, links to commonly used Wage and Hour documents are listed below.

Wage and Hour Forms and Posters

A required poster for any business covered by the Indiana Minimum Wage law.

Application for Wage Claim

Required application to file a claim for unpaid wages with the Indiana Department of Labor.