Confirming an Employee's Compensation and Payment of Wages

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

An employee of mine asked if I could sign a form he wrote up stating that he receives payment in form of check and cash (which he does). He said that he needed it in order to get a new apartment because his official income was not enough. I was extremely busy at the time and not thinking straight but now I feel like it was very suspicious. I found out after this happened that he has been acting suspicious, snooping around and asking strange questions. My company makes handmade jewelry and he is one of the main people that makes it. I could not sleep last night thinking about this. If anyone could give me some advice it would be greatly appreciated. I have a family with a 5 year old son and if something were to happen I dont know what I would do.

Did you read the form before you signed it? Let's start with that.

Yes I did. It states that he has been working for me since February and that he makes a certain amount in check and also in cash.

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I was just trying to help the guy out. I know that it was foolish to trust him but my eyes are wide open now. I should also mention that pretty much everything involving our business is under my wife's name and not mine.

So, exactly what do you think he's planning to do with the form and how do you think a statement to that effect incriminates or threatens you in any way?

BTW, I am not seeing how you were "tricked".

"It states that he has been working for me since February and that he makes a certain amount in check and also in cash."

If the date and the amounts stated on the form are accurate, then what's your problem? I sign forms like this all the time, I think I've signed millions of 'em for employees. They need them for a variety of reasons such as mortgages, loans, new apartments, credit applications, visas, you name it. It's perfectly normal for employees to ask for these forms (or confirmation letters as they're usually called), and perfectly normal for employers to provide them. Heck, I've had to request one of these from my employers at least several times during my work life.

Would any signed paper be considered official or would it have to be notorized? Would I be able to just deny having signed it? Being that the business is under my spouses name would my signature even be able to affect the business? I'm sorry for all the questions but this employee has been suspected of trying to possibly steal ideas and maybe hurt our business. He was acting very strange the day he asked for the signed form.

Please read my post. Why do you have a problem with this? Why would you deny having signed this form? How are you going to be hurt by this form, a type of form that millions of employers sign millions of times every day? (And no it doesn't have to be notarized to be valid. If the boss signs it, it's valid.)

Given how common this sort of thing is, you're the one who's acting suspicious for getting so paranoid about it. Certainly your employee isn't being suspicious for requesting it, he's just acting like a normal employeed.

Having a signed form attesting to one's pay and stealing the employers ideas are two completely different and separate concepts. One has nothing whatsoever to do with the other.

You haven't answered my questions. What do you think he is planning to do with this paper and how do you think it can harm you?

Like eerelations, I sign all kinds of forms like this for all manner of reasons, including housing, and I've never had one backfire on me yet.

It might be the OP is not making deductions from the cash portion of the employee's pay and he's afraid the employee is going to convey this information to the IRS - except that would get the employee in trouble too if he's not reporting the cash pay. Or the employee is job hunting and will use this form to negotiate his compensation at his potential new job - and the OP translates "job hunting" and "compensation negotiating" to mean "stealing ideas." Either way the OP seems awfully paranoid about this and it's very odd indeed that he's not answering our questions - there's definitely more to the OP's story than what he's telling us.

Well, I'm not answering any more of his questions until he answers mine.

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Quoting cbg

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Well, I'm not answering any more of his questions until he answers mine.

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Like button. :)

as long as you are following the law and paying appropriate payroll taxes you should be fine.


if you are not, it is the crime of tax evasion you should be worried about, not a pay letter.

He reprinted a copy of the form I gave him claiming that he wanted to make it look more official.! I read through it and I almost positive it was the same content as my original copy but still a little uneasy and paranoid that I may have missed something. If by some chance that I signed something intended to hurt my business I want to know if it would be legally binding even though everything is under my spouses name. Sorry for acing so paranoid but I am just really worried about the well being of my family. It would kill me to know that I somehow ruined things.

if you do not know what you signed nobody can really tell what effect it may have.

If all that the form said is what you have posted here, and if you are paying all the appropriate taxes, I can't see any way that it can hurt you or your business, no matter whose name the business is under.

Now, if there was more to the form than you've indicated, or if you are in any way failing to pay all the appropriate payroll taxes, all bets are off. But as already indicated, that is a very common request and the reason he provided you is in no way unusual.

So my signature can negatively affect a business that is under my spouses name? I guess that is my main concern

THERE IS NOTHING IN THE LETTER THAT YOU SIGNED THAT CAN HURT THE BUSINESS, NO MATTER WHOSE NAME IT IS UNDER, UNLESS YOU ARE FAILING TO PAY ALL THE ASSOCIATED PAYROLL TAXES!!!!!

And if that is the case, then the letter can hurt you whether it's in your spouse's name or not.

You are making far, far too much of whose name the business is under. For the purpose of this issue, it doesn't matter squat whose name it is under.

Pick one:

1. I (or my spouse) am paying 100% of the appropriate taxes for this individual's pay.

2. I (or my spouse) am not paying all of the appropriate taxes for this individual's pay.

If 1. then NOTHING IN THE LETTER CAN HURT THE BUSINESS NO MATTER WHAT AND NO MATTER WHOSE NAME THE BUSINESS IS IN

If 2. then the business can be hurt no matter who signed it and no matter whose name the business is in. But it won't be because of anything the employee did - it will be because of your failure to pay the taxes and you'd be in just as much trouble no matter how it was found out.

So pick one and deal with it.