Can Workers Be Made to Pay for Tools, Boots or Uniforms?

“Can I take the cost of his tools out of his check?” Three sets of rules answer that. The federal wage law sets a floor that tool costs may not cut into. OSHA decides who pays for safety gear. And some states require employers to cover work expenses outright. All three are about employees; a true independent contractor usually supplies his own tools, and whether your helper really is one is a separate question (1099 or W-2?).

The federal rule: wages paid “free and clear”

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, wages count only if they are paid “finally and unconditionally” or “free and clear” (29 CFR 531.35). The rule says the wage requirements are not met when the employee “kicks back” part of his wage to the employer, in cash or otherwise, and it uses tools as its example: if you require an employee to provide tools of the trade used in or specifically required for your work, there is a violation in any workweek when the cost of those tools “cuts into the minimum or overtime wages required.”

Note two things. The rule covers tools the worker must buy himself, not only payroll deductions. And it is a test of each workweek, not of the year.

The Labor Department’s Fact Sheet #16 applies the same test to uniforms and other items. If a uniform is required by law, by the nature of the business or by you, its cost and upkeep are your business expense; if you make the employee bear it, it may not reduce his wage below the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, “nor may that cost cut into overtime compensation.” You may spread a uniform deduction over several paydays as long as no workweek falls below those lines. The fact sheet names the items that carry the same limits because they are for the employer’s benefit: “tools used in the employee’s work, damages to the employer’s property by the employee or any other individuals, financial losses due to clients/customers not paying bills, and theft of the employer’s property.”

Say a helper earns $15 an hour and works exactly 40 hours: $600. The federal floor for that week is 40 × $7.25, or $290. Under the federal rule alone, a tool deduction that leaves him at least $290 for the week would not break the minimum-wage test. That is the floor, not a recommendation: state law may forbid the deduction outright, and in a week with overtime the cost may not cut into the overtime pay the law requires either. The simplest habit is to take nothing in an overtime week. How overtime is figured is in Overtime on a Day Rate or a Piece Rate.

OSHA: who buys the safety gear

OSHA’s 2007 final rule (72 FR 64341, effective February 13, 2008) settled who pays for protective equipment. For construction, 29 CFR 1926.95(d)(1) says the protective equipment, including personal protective equipment (PPE), used to comply with the construction standards “shall be provided by the employer at no cost to employees,” with the exceptions below. The general-industry standard, 29 CFR 1910.132(h), carries the same rule with nearly the same exceptions for work that is not construction. Where another OSHA standard says who pays for a specific item, that standard governs.

Paragraph (d)(6) closes the obvious loophole: you “shall not require an employee to provide or pay for his or her own PPE” except for the items excepted above. If a worker uses his own gear, paragraph (b) makes you responsible for making sure it is adequate, maintained and sanitary, and paragraph (c) requires that PPE be of safe design and selected to fit each worker properly.

Two lines from the 2007 rule’s explanation settle common questions. “Ordinary hand tools are also not PPE,” so OSHA’s payment rule does not reach a framing hammer; the wage rules above do. But OSHA concluded that electrically insulated tools, such as the insulated pliers and screwdrivers used on live electrical work, while not PPE for this purpose, “are a protective control measure and the employer must pay for them.” And “uniforms, caps, or other clothing worn solely to identify a person as an employee would not be considered to be PPE,” so the company shirt falls under the uniform rule in the wage section, not OSHA’s.

A harness or respirator the standards require is PPE you buy. The rules on when they are required are in Fall Protection and Silica Dust.

States that go further

California. Labor Code section 2802(a) says an employer “shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties.” For on-site construction work, Wage Order 16 spells it out in section 8. Uniforms you require as a condition of employment you must provide and maintain, and “uniform” includes “wearing apparel and accessories of distinctive design or color.” Tools and equipment you require, or that the job needs, you must provide and maintain, “except that an employee whose wages are at least two (2) times the minimum wage may provide and maintain hand tools and equipment customarily required by the particular trade or craft.” With the state minimum wage at $16.90 an hour in 2026 (section 4), that line is $33.80 an hour at the state rate. Section 7 adds that no employer may deduct from wages unless the deduction is allowed by law. Other California industries have their own wage orders, so check the one that covers your trade.

Illinois. Since January 1, 2019, section 9.5 of the Wage Payment and Collection Act requires employers to reimburse “all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee within the employee’s scope of employment and directly related to services performed for the employer.” You are not responsible for losses from the employee’s own negligence, normal wear, or theft (unless your negligence caused it), and you are liable only if you authorized or required the expense or broke your own written policy. The employee submits expenses with documentation within 30 days unless your written policy allows longer. Separately, section 9 bars deductions from wages unless they are required by law, for the employee’s benefit, under a valid wage assignment or deduction order, or “made with the express written consent of the employee, given freely at the time the deduction is made.”

Other states have their own deduction and expense laws. Before you deduct anything, read your state labor department’s page on wage deductions.

The usual situations

• “He broke my saw.” Damage to your property is on Fact Sheet #16’s list of items for your benefit, so the federal floor applies, and the state rules above may bar the deduction entirely.
• “He needs his own hand tools.” Federally, he may supply them if their cost never cuts into the minimum wage or required overtime in any workweek. In California construction, only at wages of at least twice the minimum wage.
• “Everyone wears the company shirt.” A required uniform is your business expense under Fact Sheet #16; for California construction work, Wage Order 16 says you provide and maintain it.
• “He has to wear steel toes.” OSHA does not make you pay for ordinary safety-toe boots he may wear off the job. Specialty protective footwear, or boots you do not let him wear off the site, are PPE you buy.
• “He lost his third hard hat.” OSHA lets you decline to pay for PPE a worker lost or damaged on purpose. Whether you may then deduct the cost is the wage question again: the federal floor and your state’s deduction law.

A policy that keeps you clear

• Write down what you supply (PPE, uniforms, power and specialty tools) and what you expect a hire to bring, and say it in the job ad (Writing a Help-Wanted Ad).
• Buy and replace the safety gear the standards require, apart from the items OSHA excepts.
• Make no deduction without checking the week against the floor, never in an overtime week, and only with written consent where your state requires it.
• In a state with an expense law, set a written reimbursement policy and pay on receipts.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and vary by state; check with the agency named above or a professional for your situation.