Wages withheld

[wordnerd211]

What is the name of your state? Maryland
I left my teaching job in March. At my request the school had divided my pay over an entire year. Now they are refusing to pay me the 2/3's of my "summer pay" which I had already earned. How can they do this?

 

[Beth3]

You quit in March. Why would they pay you for months you didn't work when you failed to work the full school year, which I presume goes into June.

You're free to file a complaint with your State's Department of Labor/wage and hour division and see what they think but I don't see that anything illegal has transpired. You opted to have your salary paid over a full 12 months and then didn't work out the full school year.

 

[ecmst12]

OP wasn't paid the full amount for the months he/she DID work though. Part of the pay was deferred so that OP would receive a paycheck through the summer when he/she was not working. That amount that was deferred was already earned. It's not that OP is looking for pay for months not worked, teacher's salary (in many districts anyway) is such that NOTHING is earned over the summer and the only way to get a paycheck for those months is to have part of the pay for the rest of the year set aside to be paid out later. Logic would dictate that OP is owed whatever was deferred from September to March, now.

 

[moburkes]

OP wasn't paid the full amount for the months he/she DID work though. Part of the pay was deferred so that OP would receive a paycheck through the summer when he/she was not working. That amount that was deferred was already earned. It's not that OP is looking for pay for months not worked, teacher's salary (in many districts anyway) is such that NOTHING is earned over the summer and the only way to get a paycheck for those months is to have part of the pay for the rest of the year set aside to be paid out later. Logic would dictate that OP is owed whatever was deferred from September to March, now.

I agree. I wonder, though, if his contract states something different.

 

[wordnerd211]

ok- my contract did not state that I would forfeit my deferred pay if I terminated the contract. Today I received a letter stating that they would pay it out over the next 10 weeks in 5 installments. According to the labor law I read they should pay me the full amount now- right?

 

[ecmst12]

Not sure about that - you're a contracted employee so your contract could override some provisions of the general labor laws. And I haven't read the labor laws for your state either. But had you NOT quit, you wouldn't have gotten the money all at once, you would have gotten it spread out over the 10 weeks of the summer, right? So they are following the same plan now, just moving up the starting date of the payout (and of course the payments will be less since you didn't work the full year). This may be something you agreed to when you signed up for the deferred paychecks. Do you have the paperwork from that?

 

[moburkes]

Not sure about that - you're a contracted employee so your contract could override some provisions of the general labor laws. And I haven't read the labor laws for your state either. But had you NOT quit, you wouldn't have gotten the money all at once, you would have gotten it spread out over the 10 weeks of the summer, right? So they are following the same plan now, just moving up the starting date of the payout (and of course the payments will be less since you didn't work the full year). This may be something you agreed to when you signed up for the deferred paychecks. Do you have the paperwork from that?

I'm still in agreement.