Journey Payroll & HR- Beaverton

Journey Payroll & HR- Beaverton We are here to support small and medium sized businesses with our Full-Service Payroll offerings!

A wage garnishment order does not mean you can let the employee go. Under federal law, firing someone over a single garn...
08/24/2026

A wage garnishment order does not mean you can let the employee go. Under federal law, firing someone over a single garnished debt is a violation.

When a valid garnishment order arrives, the employer withholds part of the employee's pay, stays inside the federal limits, and sends the money to the right place. For an ordinary debt, the cap is the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount above $217.50 a week. Child support and alimony can go higher. And the withholding is based on disposable earnings, meaning pay after legally required deductions, not gross wages.

Two points employers should look out for:

1. State law can cap garnishment lower than federal law, and when it does, the lower limit applies. And the protection against firing covers one debt, not a second separate one.

2. Garnishments are one of those quiet moments where good payroll protects both the business and the employee; everyone wins.

Read the full breakdown on our blog! https://journeypayrollhr.com/resources/blog/

Quick payroll truth: outsourcing your payroll does not outsource your legal risk.The IRS is direct about this. Even when...
08/17/2026

Quick payroll truth: outsourcing your payroll does not outsource your legal risk.

The IRS is direct about this. Even when a business forwards funds to a payroll provider, the employer stays responsible for depositing and paying federal payroll taxes. If a provider misses a deposit, the bill goes to the business.

That means a few habits are worth building no matter who runs your payroll: keeping your own login to the federal deposit system so you can check payments yourself, holding onto employment tax records for at least four years, and knowing who inside your company would carry personal liability if taxes ever went unpaid.

Great payroll support does not erase that responsibility. It helps you carry it, with confirmed deposits, organized records, and answers you can actually trust.

We broke down exactly what federal law expects from payroll support, and what a good partner should be doing about it, on the blog today. Check it out! https://journeypayrollhr.com/resources/blog/

Quick question: can a business legally deduct the cost of a uniform from an employee's paycheck?The answer comes down to...
08/10/2026

Quick question: can a business legally deduct the cost of a uniform from an employee's paycheck?

The answer comes down to one number: $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, deductions for items that mainly benefit the employer, think uniforms, tools, register shortages, or vehicle damage, can never bring an employee's pay below that floor or cut into overtime. It does not matter if the employee agreed to it.

Legally required deductions like taxes work differently. So do wage garnishments, which follow their own federal limits under the Consumer Credit Protection Act rather than one flat percentage.

Getting the category wrong is one of the easiest ways a routine payroll decision turns into a wage claim.

We broke down exactly which deductions are allowed, which are restricted, and where employers get it wrong. Read the full breakdown on our blog https://journeypayrollhr.com/resources/blogs-from-journey-payroll/

Quick question: does Medicare tax ever stop coming out of your paycheck? No. Social Security tax does, once you hit a wa...
08/03/2026

Quick question: does Medicare tax ever stop coming out of your paycheck? No. Social Security tax does, once you hit a wage limit that changes every year. Medicare tax does not, ever.

Most employees have never looked closely at the two federal taxes on every pay stub: Social Security and Medicare, together called F**A. The rates are simple: 6.2% and 1.45%, matched by the employer. What is not simple is what happens once wages climb past certain thresholds.

For 2026, the Social Security wage base is $184,500. Once an employee crosses it, Social Security withholding stops for the rest of the year. Wages above $200,000 from one employer also trigger an extra 0.9% Medicare withholding that has no employer match.

We broke down how payroll actually calculates all of it, including what happens if you work two jobs in the same year, on the blog this week. Check it out https://journeypayrollhr.com/resources/blog/

Payroll data can become evidence in a wage investigation.When the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division reviews a...
07/27/2026

Payroll data can become evidence in a wage investigation.

When the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division reviews an employer’s records, payroll data can show whether employees were paid correctly, whether overtime was calculated properly, whether deductions were handled lawfully, and whether time records were accurate.

That means payroll is not just an administrative task. It is a compliance record.

Time punches, pay rates, overtime calculations, employee classifications, deductions, and payroll corrections can all be reviewed during a wage and hour investigation.

Our latest Journey Payroll & HR blog explains how payroll data is used against employers in wage investigations, what records matter most, and what employers should review before there is a problem.

Read the full article on our website: https://journeypayrollhr.com/resources/blog/

Federal timekeeping rules do not require a specific time clock, but they do require accurate records.Under the FLSA, cov...
07/20/2026

Federal timekeeping rules do not require a specific time clock, but they do require accurate records.

Under the FLSA, covered employers must keep required time and payroll records for non-exempt employees, including hours worked each workday, total hours worked each workweek, the workweek used for overtime, pay basis, deductions, wages paid, and pay period details.

That means timekeeping is not just a scheduling task. It is the record payroll depends on to prove employees were paid correctly.

Journey Payroll & HR’s latest blog breaks down what federal timekeeping rules payroll must follow, what the Department of Labor requires under Fact Sheet #21 and 29 CFR Part 516, and where common payroll risks show up.

Read the full article here: https://journeypayrollhr.com/resources/blog/

Payroll is not just a button you press. It is one of the clearest places where employer liability shows up.Under federal...
07/13/2026

Payroll is not just a button you press. It is one of the clearest places where employer liability shows up.

Under federal law, employers are responsible for more than issuing paychecks. Payroll connects wage law, tax withholding, employee classification, overtime, deductions, garnishments, and required recordkeeping.

That means a payroll mistake is not always just an administrative error. It can become a wage violation, tax issue, recordkeeping failure, or employee claim.

The latest Journey Payroll & HR blog breaks down what employers are actually liable for, why payroll is a legal compliance function under federal law, and how payroll and HR partners should help employers build systems that are accurate, documented, and explainable.

Read the full blog here: https://journeypayrollhr.com/resources/blog/

If the Department of Labor opened a payroll investigation today, would your records explain your pay practices, or expos...
07/06/2026

If the Department of Labor opened a payroll investigation today, would your records explain your pay practices, or expose them?

It is not just payroll reports. The DOL may review time records, overtime calculations, wage deductions, employee classifications, business records, and job duty details to determine whether employees were paid correctly under federal wage and hour laws.

For employers, the takeaway is simple: payroll compliance is not only about paying employees on time. It is about keeping accurate, organized records that clearly show how pay was calculated.

Read the full blog from Journey Payroll & HR: https://journeypayrollhr.com/education

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July!
07/04/2026

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July!

The best time to audit payroll is before regulators do. ✅Most payroll problems don’t start as major violations.They star...
06/29/2026

The best time to audit payroll is before regulators do. ✅

Most payroll problems don’t start as major violations.
They start as small errors that repeat over time.

Internal payroll audits help identify risk early, strengthen compliance, and prevent much larger problems later.

We break down why proactive payroll reviews matter in our latest blog.

🔗 www.JourneyPayrollHR.com/blog

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