Employers are required to fully reimburse employees for work related expenses or losses. Under California law, employers may not place artificial limits on expenses, or base reimbursement on an employee’s position or salary. If an employer utilizes “lump sum” payments to cover reimbursement of expenses, an employee may still be able to recover any expenses which exceed the “lump sum” amount. Moreover, an employer and employee cannot agree to waive reimbursement of work related expenses. Common examples of reimbursement violations include:

• Employees are required to use their personal vehicles for work-related activities who are not reimbursed for gas, mileage or parking (for example, driving to the bank to make deposits, driving to meetings, or driving between different stores, branches or offices)
• Employees are required to use their own vehicles for work, but are reimbursed only a set rate per mile, or per delivery, that is less than their actual vehicle expenses
• Employees must work from home to send and receive faxes or emails, but are not reimbursed for home office expenses such as internet or fax machines
• Employees are required to purchase tools, equipment, or software to perform their job, but are not reimbursed
• Employees are misclassified as “independent contractors,” and told that they are responsible for all of their expenses because those are the “cost of running your own business.” If, in fact, you do all of your work for one business entity, there is a good chance you have been misclassified and are entitled to reimbursement for all of the business expenses you have been paying.

Another example of an area where employers either intentionally or mistakenly do not satisfy their burden of paying for employee expenses is in regard to uniforms. Employers requiring employees to wear a uniform are responsible for purchasing uniforms as well as for paying for any related costs associated with maintaining and laundering said uniforms. Uniforms are defined to include apparel of distinct design or color. The “distinctive design” that makes clothing a “uniform” for which an employer must pay or reimburse for purchasing, maintaining and laundering includes rugby or polo shirts, floral Hawaiian-style shirts, or any clothing of a specific color even if the clothes do not actually contain any company logos or are not of a specific design. Of course, traditional uniforms such as are worn by police officers or security personnel are also included.