Wrong Payment of Per Diem

My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Colorado

Upon first hire with my former employer, we were given a company credit card to purchase food items when sent away on a job that took us away from our families for several days at a time. At the beginning of 2013, my former employer changed this program to per diem and set the limit to $30 per day.

Is what the employer did legal? I thought that per diem was set by the federal government.

The per diem was also included into my taxable income. I am a USAF veteran honorably discharged. My experience with per diem is that it comes in a separate non taxed check. Is what my former employer did, wrong?

I was away from my family a total of 9 times in 2013. Each time that I was gone, I was away for two to four days at a time.

Is per diem paid based on the employers physical office location or at the job site?

Is it worth taking my former employer to small claims court for this? I feel gipped!!!

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Quoting Simbro

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My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Colorado

Upon first hire with my former employer, we were given a company credit card to purchase food items when sent away on a job that took us away from our families for several days at a time. At the beginning of 2013, my former employer changed this program to per diem and set the limit to $30 per day.

Is what the employer did legal? I thought that per diem was set by the federal government.

The per diem was also included into my taxable income. I am a USAF veteran honorably discharged. My experience with per diem is that it comes in a separate non taxed check. Is what my former employer did, wrong?

I was away from my family a total of 9 times in 2013. Each time that I was gone, I was away for two to four days at a time.

Is per diem paid based on the employers physical office location or at the job site?

Is it worth taking my former employer to small claims court for this? I feel gipped!!!

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Nothing legally requires your employer to pay per diem (provided you were making at least minimum wage for the hours you were working). The company was well within its rights to change its travel expense policy from CC based to per diem. $30 per day for meals is slightly low but not unreasonable, even if it was unreasonable there is nothing illegal about it.

If the money was considered per diem for tax purposes then you wouldn't have been taxed on it, it doesn't appear to have been filed this way. If you paid taxes on this money then you are entitled to take a tax deduction based on the IRS per diem rate. If you did not pay taxes then you are only able to deduct based on the difference between the two rates. The IRS per diem rate varies based on the job site what your employer pays does not have to.

You have no claim to take your employer to court.

Many companies use the Federal standard for per diem reimbursement, especially as it varies from city to city. They are under no obligation to do so - it is simply a guideline.

Per diem under a private employer and per diem as a Federal employee are not necessarily handled the same way. I am seeing nothing your employer did that was out of the way.