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My company overpaid me now there trying to take it back.

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schwarka

Guest
What is the name of your state? North Dakota
The company that I work for has been over paying me on my paycheck since June 2001. The extra amount is for a shift differential. The payroll department just caught the error, and now they plan on deducting the over payment from my paycheck. Do they really have and recourse to do this? It was an error on their behalf and now I won't get a paycheck for a few months because of it. If they do have any recourse can they deduct for the whole time since some of it was for a previous year? The location that I work in is in North Dakota, however our main headquarters are in Minnesota. I added that information since I don't know if the would make any difference.
 


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sonofamoo

Guest
Well did it say shift differential on your paycheck? then DUH.....why havent you been writing a check back to the company each week and screw up their bookeeping but good?

Or were you just getting a higher perhour rate? with no mention of a shift differential on your paycheck?

if so then you can claim it was a raise and they never were informed of it!
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
A valid question has been asked. Did you notify the employer that you were being overpaid? Or did you just accept the extra money and say nothing?

In any event, if you have been overpaid they are entitled to repayment. You cannot have your entire paycheck taken; you must be paid at least minimum wage for each hour that you work. Depending on North Dakota law, (you will have to check with the ND Wage and Hour division to be certain) they may have to have your written permission in order to make the deduction, but that doesn't mean they can't demand that you write them a check, instead. Whichever way it works, you owe them the money back, and you can be fired for refusing.

It never ceases to amaze me, the number of people who think that if an entity makes a mistake that results in their receiving extra money, that the entity has no recourse to reclaim it. If you had been underpaid, you'd expect to be made whole, wouldn't you? Why don't you think your employer has the same right?
 
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sonofamoo

Guest
I'd still try and hustle them...

Saying that I thought I recieved a merit pay increase, for my good work and great job performance, but it seems nobody notified the main office in Minnesota of the increase.

And then be indignant about the aggrivation.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
sonofamoo, you are advising this poster on a very good method to get fired and end up with no paycheck whatsoever.

In all probability, schwarka has knowingly accepted the shift differential for the past 15 months and hoped nobody would notice and purposefully didn't say anything. The company could fire him for that alone. Employees have an OBLIGATION to speak up if they notice or should have noticed an error on their paychecks that results in an overpayment.

Since, in my experience, employees notice if they've been shorted one cent of pay, I've found it impossible to believe the excuses I've been given when they were accidentally over paid and didn't tell their supervisor, such as "I never noticed" or "I thought the company was giving me extra pay for some reason." Yeah, right.

Had sonofamoo spoken up back when he should have, he wouldn't now find himself in this predicament of having to pay back hundreds of dollars. cbg is correct however that the company cannot pay him less than minimum wage and he may want to contact his State's DOL to see if his authorization for the deductions is necessary.
 

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