Bergdorf Goodman retail workers claim parent company Saks Global is inexplicably withholding hundreds of dollars from their weekly paychecks.
Nearly two dozen employees at the high-end Manhattan department store have noticed swaths of unexplained deductions – up to 75% – from their paychecks since Jan. 1, according to interviews with workers and a Post analysis of paystubs and internal emails.
Saks Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Jan. 13 – nearly two weeks after the cash conundrum began.
Management assured employees the payroll issue was being investigated and that they were “working toward a solution,” according to a Jan. 28 email reviewed by The Post.
But a Saks Global rep told The Post this week, “there were no systemic errors related to payroll tax withholdings or benefits deductions” since Jan. 1.
“It is common for net pay to vary at the start of the calendar year due to routine factors such as annual resets to Social Security contributions, 401(k) limits, and benefit deductions,” the rep said.
An affected worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said the math didn’t add up.
“There’s no way the government is taking 75% out of [my] paycheck,” the employee said. “People have bills, people have to move, buy groceries, and [some] are getting $400 a week?”
The same worker added: “There are coworkers of mine that can’t pay their rent or people can’t buy lunch.
“It’s so irresponsible … not to [provide] answers.”
Paystubs reviewed by The Post showed upwards of 40 to 64% of yearly earnings to date inexplicably withheld from workers.
Sellers working the floor of Bergdorf Goodman’s Manhattan store are paid commission for slinging luxury products, and paychecks are likely to fluctuate month-to-month, employees explained.
But a longtime worker asserted they earned hundreds of dollars less than what is paid out for a typical “slow January” – and that tax deductions and other withholdings have historically hovered around just 30%.
“You can’t really explain to your landlord any of this,” noted the employee, who claimed their weekly paycheck had over 60% of earnings inexplicably withheld.
Another employee said selling has become even harder due to Saks Global’s ongoing financial woes, claiming Bergdorf Goodman in Midtown hasn’t received a shipment of new items since last year.
As the Midtown store has gone an “entire fourth quarter without new shipments,” employees have reported a dramatic fall in sales.
“I’m down [in commissions] over 50%,” one worker said.
Saks had struggled to pay its vendors for over a year after it acquired Neiman Marcus in 2024, Retail Drive first reported. Last February, then-CEO Marc Metrick mentioned an 18-month backlog in unpaid invoices.
But that still doesn’t explain the majority of paychecks apparently going toward “deductions,” workers said — or a complete discrepancy in pay even among other employees selling the same amount of product.
In one instance, two workers said they sold the same amount one week in January, but one paycheck was more than $1,500, and another employee only took home less than $1,000.
The same worker reported a bizarre instance of their tax documents being edited by an “unauthorized user” in a new payroll system the company began using this year – which falsely changed their New York City residence status.
Saks denied any employee or company data being accessed by unauthorized users as of the Jan. 1 new system rollout, “and there were no system errors.”
The roughly two dozen Bergdorf Goodman employees affected by the alleged payroll deductions, however, are still looking for answers.
“It’s lack of transparency and honestly lack of respect for the employees, and as extension, for the customer,” one worker said.
“Retail workers are the people who pay the bills and also the people with the least power,” they added.
“It’s completely unacceptable.”
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