Employee realizes management had been deducting $37/month for 'employee meals' — the twist? He brought his own lunch
The employee noticed the discrepancy after their paycheck seemed a bit too low for their salary
In a September 15, 2026, Reddit post, an employee who goes by the moniker u/Other-Coach-7524 realized a crucial detail in the onboarding document they failed to read: their employer had deducted $37 per month from their payroll. When they investigated deeply, they found a “deduction” labeled “employee meals" program they actually weren’t part of. In fact, they brought their own lunches to work. Their post has since tallied 9,600 upvotes.
I found a random deduction on my paycheck that has been taking money for almost a year
by u/Other-Coach-7524 in povertyfinance
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The employee noticed the discrepancy after their paycheck seemed a bit too low for their salary. It sounded bizarre given that they were used to bringing their own lunch to work. To clarify the details, the employee interrogated their accounts department. Turned out they were automatically enrolled in a cafeteria program during the job orientation, and they had no idea it was leeching $18.50 out of their payroll twice every month without their knowledge. While signing the induction documents, they never realized they were being enrolled.
Make that money, watch it burn
The accounts clarified that the entire amount couldn’t be refunded, so they would only provide a refund for the previous three months. The department also told them that they could have chosen to opt out of the program anytime. “I have a little money saved, but I'm still at the point where $37 a month actually matters, so finding out I'd been throwing that away for almost a year hurt,” the employee lamented.
Law says it's unfair
According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must notify the employees in writing and obtain explicit consent before executing deductions like these. “You can't deduct automatic enrollment contributions from an employee's wages until the employee has a reasonable time to make an affirmative election (opt out of the plan) after receiving notice,” the act says, per the IRS's official website.
In the case in point, as some readers also said, the mistake could have been done on the part of the employee too, while they failed to read the documents properly when signing up for the job. Adobe also cited statistics according to which 41% of employees tend to sign or acknowledge an onboarding document without fully reading it.
But whose fault is it?
The worker’s post unleashed a whole Pandora’s box of questions among the Reddit readers. u/RUshMan9823 said, “This is a great reminder to make sure to read everything carefully before you sign and check your paystub every time you receive one as well. Also, depending on your situation, location, and what they are providing, $18.50 might not be a bad deal for lunches.” u/JeninMiami echoed the same perspective: “Since they can’t refund all of it, do you have a standing credit for a certain amount of time? $1.85 a day for a hot lunch…that’s cheaper than anything I could bring from home!”
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