Can an employer withhold a relocation repayment from an employee&#39;s last paycheck?
<p>My current employer paid me $2500 to relocate to Tempe AZ from Chicago, roughly a year and a few months ago.</p>

<p>I'm leaving, though I have an agreement as part of that relocation that if I leave / quit / am terminated within 18 months, I must pay it back in full.</p>

<p>I was under the impression that when I did this, I'd simply owe them a check or something along those lines; When I spoke to my manager, he mentioned it would be with-held from my final paycheck. </p>

<p>This works out beneficially for me, as if they simply pay me fewer wages on that paycheck then I suppose I won't be paying as many taxes, and possibly it'll be paid pre-tax, but it brought up a question in my mind, of whether this is actually something they're supposed to be doing.</p>

<p>In <strong>Arizona</strong>, is there any statute on whether an employer can withhold expenses owed back to the company, like a repayment of a reimbursement fee from an employee's final paycheck?</p>

<h1>Yes, there is.</h1>

<p><a href="http://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2016/title-23/section-23-352/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2016 Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 23, Section 352</a> provides that an employer cannot withhold wages except when, among other things,</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The employer has prior written authorization from the employee. An employer shall not withhold wages under a written authorization from the employee past the date specified by the employee in a written revocation of the authorization, unless the withholding is to resolve a debt or obligation to the employer or a court orders otherwise.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This directly applies to you: there is an authorisations in the contract with an implicit revocation dated to 18 months after the date your employment began, which your employer has explicitly accepted.</p>

<p>However, until that time, you remain under the obligation and they can hold the money to cover it.</p>

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