<prompt> Human: I work for a large manufacturing company and every year they send everyone in the company these Fred Meyer gift cards for 50. The catch is that the pay stub for that pay period shows that 50 was removed from my gross pay as a deduction under the DeductionsOther section and labeled as Miscellaneous. My main concern, other than this cheap trick to provide gifts, is that since my company is purchasing literally thousands of these cards, generally the issuing company would provide a discount percentage for the bulk order. I have gathered from some exploration into the issue with other companies that issue gift cards that such discounts are possible, generally in the 3-8 range depending on the size of the order. For example, a 50 gift card might end up costing the ordering company 48.50 with a bulk order discount. They then send me the 50 gift card to replace the 50 they took from me to start with and pocket the 1.50. Sure I get my money back, but now I can only spend that 50 at this one store and my company essentially just paid itself with my money. Multiply this by tens of thousands of employees and the result could be formidable.So if my company is utilizing employee funds to bulk purchase gift cards, then returning the amount borrowed from each employee by way of these gift cards and pocketing the bulk purchase discount, is there a legal issue at hand? This whole situation feels shady, taking part of my pay check then reissuing it to me via this gift card that can only be used at a specific store. All of this is involuntary, and if they are making money using my funds to purchase these gift cards is that legal?Edit: Clarity hopefully  <response>: It is probably included as income and not actually being deducted from your pay. The gift has to be taxed which is why it is itemized on your check. My company does this as well. 