can a employer pay an employee less hours than worked during a given pay period for no reason?

Question

can a employer pay an employee less hours than worked during a given pay period for no reason?

Answer

As a general rule (and law), hourly employees must be paid for all hours worked. However, when people post here and leave out most of the story, it is usually important details intentionally left out. Here, it might be "for no reason." There IS a reason the employer did this. What is it?