Siciliano
v. Mueller, dba McDonalds – Pa. Super.
In
a class action involving an issue of first impression, the court held that mandatory
payment of wages by payroll debit card does not meet the requirement of section
260.3 of the WPCL that “wages shall be paid in lawful money of the United
States or check.” 43 P.S. § 260.3.
The
WPCL states that wages “shall be paid in lawful money of the United States or
check.” 43 P.S. § 260.3. The language is clear. A debit card is not “lawful
money” and it is not a “check” as contemplated by the drafters of the WPCL. The Legislature obviously did not contemplate
the concept of a payroll debit card when it adopted the language of section
260.3 in 1961.
The
term “check” is defined in the WPCL as follows: “A draft drawn on a bank and
payable on demand.” 43 P.S. § 260.2(a). A “draft,” though not defined in the
WPCL, is “[a]n unconditional written order signed by one person (the drawer)
directing another person (the drawee or payor) to pay a certain sum of money on
demand or at a definite time to a third person (the payee) or to bearer. A
check is the most common example of a draft.” Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed.
2014).
The
term “lawful money” is not defined in the statute; however, its common
definition or approved usage does not include a debit card. See 1 Pa.C.S. §
1903 (where terms are not defined in statutes, Statutory Construction Act
requires words and phrases to be construed by their common and approved
usages). The Statutory Construction Act itself defines “money” as: “Lawful
money of the United States.” 1 Pa.C.S. § 1991. B
The
use of a voluntary payroll debit card may be an appropriate method of wage
payment. However, until our General Assembly provides otherwise, the plain
language of the WPCL makes clear that the mandatory use of payroll debit cards
at issue here, which may subject the user to fees, is not. S
