Till shortages and uniform costs: can they take it from pay?

You finish a long shift on the checkout, in the pub or on a fast food counter, and the next payslip is light. £40 for a till shortage. £30 for a polo shirt you never even took home. It feels like a fine for going to work, and often it is an unlawful one.

Can they take a till shortage from your wages?

No, not without permission given in advance. Under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, every deduction from wages needs authority: a statute such as tax, a clear term in your contract, or written agreement you signed before the shortage, breakage or loss happened.

Agreement signed after the event does not count. If the manager waves a form at you once the till is already £40 down and says sign here, that signature cannot authorise the deduction. The same applies if the contract term was added after the event.

Paying you less than you earned counts as a deduction too. A shortage silently netted off, with no line on the payslip, is still a deduction and still needs authority. If your payslip does not show it, keep that payslip. Our guide to missing payslips and pay details explains what your employer must give you in writing.

These rules protect workers, not only employees, so zero-hours staff and most agency workers are covered too. Someone genuinely self-employed is not, but a bogus self-employment label on a regular member of staff can be challenged.

The special retail rules: 10% cap and 12-month limit

Checkout staff, bar staff, petrol station cashiers and fast food counter crew are usually in what the law calls retail employment. That means work involving retail transactions with the public. For cash shortages and stock deficiencies, sections 17 to 22 of the Employment Rights Act add extra protection on top of the written agreement rule.

The 10% cap applies per pay day, not per shortage. If you are paid weekly, the most that can come out of any one weekly wage packet for till or stock is a tenth of that week’s gross. The rest must wait for the next pay day. The same cap applies if the employer asks you to hand over cash instead of deducting, but with extra steps. They must give you written notice of the total, demand it in writing on a pay day, and take no more than 10% less anything already deducted that day.

The 12-month clock starts when the employer establishes the shortage, or when they reasonably should have. A deduction first taken after that window closes is unauthorised and repayable, even with a perfect contract clause.

What if you were not the only one on the till?

Shared tills, float swaps mid-shift and managers dipping in to give change make it hard to pin a shortage on one person. The law does not solve that with a fair split. It asks a harder question: did you agree in writing to pay for shortages, and has the employer actually established what went missing?

An “everyone chips in £10” deduction with no clause is simply unlawful. Even with a clause, the employer must have established the shortage and kept within the cap and the 12 months. Acas guidance says employers should notify you as soon as possible before taking an unexpected deduction and explain it if you ask. Silence plus a light payslip is a red flag.

There is no free-standing legal duty to hold an investigation before deducting. The protection is narrower and stronger: authority, evidence and caps. For low-paid staff on shared tills, that often means the deduction fails on authority before fairness even arises. If you face blame for theft, read our wider guide on unlawful deductions from wages alongside this page.

Breakages, dropped stock and walkouts

Pub glasses, a dropped delivery tray, customers who leave without paying. Managers often treat these as the worker’s bill. The same section 13 test applies. Is there a contract term or prior written agreement covering breakages or stock loss? If not, the deduction is unlawful.

Whether a breakage deduction can lawfully pull you below the minimum wage is a grey area worth knowing. A deduction linked to genuine contractual liability for your conduct can, in HMRC’s view, leave pay below the floor. A dropped glass on a busy Friday is hard to call misconduct. Unless the employer can evidence the conduct link, treat a below-minimum result as an underpayment and report it.

Uniform and equipment charges

This is where most low-paid staff lose money without realising. Any deduction for spending connected with the job reduces your minimum wage pay. That includes uniform, safety shoes, branded tops, till-training fees and tools you must have for the role.

The National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 say so twice over. Regulation 13 says deductions for the worker’s expenditure in connection with employment reduce minimum wage pay. Regulation 12 says paying the employer for goods or services to meet the employer’s requirement, such as buying a compulsory branded top, also counts, even if you hand over cash rather than suffer a deduction. HMRC’s manual puts it bluntly. Required-uniform costs will always reduce minimum wage pay, including buying your own black trousers to meet a dress code.

Charged for a uniform you never got? That is worse for the employer. With no clause it is wholly unauthorised. Even with a clause, charging for goods never supplied breaches the employer’s own side of the deal. You can demand repayment and, if it took you below minimum wage, report an underpayment as well.

They cannot use your tips to plug the gap

Since 1 October 2024, the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 bans deductions from qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges allocated under Part 2B of the Employment Rights Act, except for tax and National Insurance. A contract clause does not override it. A signed consent form does not override it.

Taking card tips to cover a till shortage, skimming the tronc for breakages, or holding back service charge to pay for walkouts is now clearly unlawful in England, Wales and Scotland. Acas puts it simply: employers must not make deductions from tips. For the full rules on who keeps what, see tips and service charge rights.

Leaving? The final pay trap

The 10% cap does not apply to your final wage instalment. If you leave and there is a valid clause, the employer can take a whole outstanding shortage from that last pay packet. That surprises many shop and bar leavers.

Two limits still bite. The deduction still needs section 13 authority, and cash demands still sit inside the 12-month window. If the clause was never there, final pay status changes nothing. Our guide to unlawful deductions from wages has more on challenging a short final payment.

What to do today: get it back

1. Keep the paper. Photograph the till receipt, rota, float sheet and any shortage note. Save the payslip showing the deduction and the contract page that mentions deductions, if any. Note who else used the till and when.
2. Ask in writing. Email the manager: what was deducted, for which shortage and date, and which contract term or signed agreement authorises it. Ask for the gross pay figure used for the 10% calculation. Keep it polite and short.
3. Raise a grievance if pay is not returned. Many retailers repay once challenged. A written grievance starts the formal clock and helps at tribunal.
4. Check minimum wage. If a uniform, equipment or non-conduct deduction left you below £12.71 (21 plus), £10.85 (18 to 20) or £8.00 (under 18 and apprentices) from April 2026, report it through the gov.uk pay and work rights complaint form. The Fair Work Agency now leads minimum wage enforcement UK-wide, with HMRC enforcing on its behalf. You can search past offenders on our named employers tool.
5. Start Acas early conciliation in time. You must contact Acas before most tribunal claims. It pauses the deadline while talks happen. In Great Britain you now have six months less a day from the deduction, or from the last deduction in a series. In Northern Ireland the limit is still three months and conciliation runs through the Labour Relations Agency.

Deadlines and recent changes

The tribunal orders repayment of unauthorised deductions and can add compensation for financial loss the deduction caused, such as bank charges. There is a two-year backstop: deductions more than two years before your claim cannot be recovered.

1. 1 Oct 2024Tips ban in force

   Deductions from qualifying tips except tax and National Insurance become unlawful in England, Wales and Scotland.

2. 1 Apr 2026New minimum wage rates

   National Living Wage £12.71, age 18 to 20 £10.85, under 18 and apprentice £8.00.

3. 7 Apr 2026Fair Work Agency launches

   The new agency leads minimum wage enforcement UK-wide, with HMRC enforcing on its behalf, plus agency and licensing work.

4. 1 Oct 2026Tribunal deadline doubles in Great Britain

   Employment Rights Act 2025 extends deduction claims from three months to six months less a day. Applies only where the deduction date is on or after 1 October 2026. Northern Ireland stays at three months.