wage adjustment

[MrJenkins]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

Last week, I was over paid by by my company. I didn't catch the mistake until it was too late. I spoke with HR and presented them the facts and they stated a wage adjustment would take place. I received my check this week and I was shocked at my pay.

I thought they'd take 50 out a week until caught up, or at least threow me to minimum wage, but no the case.

Basically my check looks like this
XXXX net pay
XXXX wage adjustment

XXXX total pay.

My total pay equals 4.67 an hour after the wage adjustment. After taxes, insurance, etc.. I am basically left with a small amount for the week.

Is this legal?

 

[pattytx]

Maybe. What were you told the method would be, if any?

Was the "adjustment" the net overpayment or the gross overpayment? Can you tell from your paystub whether or not the gross overpayment has been reversed from your Year-to-Date amounts?

 

[Antigone*]

How much did you get overpaid by?

 

[MrJenkins]

How much did you get overpaid by?

I was overpaid by 290(gross, not net) dollars and some odd cents. They never told me the exact method they were going to use , just said there would be a wage adjustment.

Also, the way my pay stub looks like is :

40 @ xx/hr = XXXXX dollars
(next line)
Wage Adjustment = -290
(next line)
Gross pay = xxxx

They then taxed accordingly to the gross pay. The gross pay amount listed = ~4.50 hour.

After taxes, insurance, and my child support, I was left with basically 2/hour pay for my net

Not sure if any of the last sentence is relevant, but I wanted to throw it in there.

I can also input the numbers if needed, but I didn't want to break any rules

 

[CSO286]

I was overpaid by 290(gross, not net) dollars and some odd cents. They never told me the exact method they were going to use , just said there would be a wage adjustment.

Also, the way my pay stub looks like is :

40 @ xx/hr = XXXXX dollars
(next line)
Wage Adjustment = -290
(next line)
Gross pay = xxxx

They then taxed accordingly to the gross pay. The gross pay amount listed = ~4.50 hour.

After taxes, insurance, and my child support, I was left with basically 2/hour pay for my net

Not sure if any of the last sentence is relevant, but I wanted to throw it in there.

I can also input the numbers if needed, but I didn't want to break any rules

The numbers would help make it make sense.

But here's the thing, you were overpaid by alomst $300 and you didn't catch it?

And when you talked to HR, you didn't set up how the repayment was going to occur?

You wanted them to offset your pay by $50/check, but you didn't tell them?

And now you're having trouble meeting your regular expenses, right?

I have one more question: Who discovered the overpayment: you or your employer?

Their method of recouping the money is not illegal. If you had wanted it done differently, you should have inidcated it when they discussed the overpayment with you.

 

[pattytx]

CSO, the OP clearly stated that HE found the error and reported it to HR.

These numbers are good enough.

OK, so at least your YTD is correct, and you were taxed on the adjusted amount; that's good (not the most accurate way to do it according to payroll best practices, but acceptable).

Theoretically, the employer should have gotten a written authorization from you to deduct whatever amount they were going to deduct.

Realistically, though, by the time you file a wage claim and by the time the state gets to it, several paychecks will have come and gone, and you'll be caught up. And the employer could argue that the overpayment was, in effect, a salary advance.

And also, realistically, if you knew you were overpaid, you shouldn't have spent the money; you should have held some back in reserve.

 

[MrJenkins]

CSO, the OP clearly stated that HE found the error and reported it to HR.

These numbers are good enough.

OK, so at least your YTD is correct, and you were taxed on the adjusted amount; that's good (not the most accurate way to do it according to payroll best practices, but acceptable).

Theoretically, the employer should have gotten a written authorization from you to deduct whatever amount they were going to deduct.

Realistically, though, by the time you file a wage claim and by the time the state gets to it, several paychecks will have come and gone, and you'll be caught up. And the employer could argue that the overpayment was, in effect, a salary advance.

And also, realistically, if you knew you were overpaid, you shouldn't have spent the money; you should have held some back in reserve.

Well, I didn't spend the money because I knew it wasn't right. That is why I brought it to their attention. I guess in the end it all plays out the same.

I just have certain deductions that take direct payment out of my check that is income based. Since they "overpaid" me, I was deducted more money. Even though they adjusted it, I still have a minimum payment that is set, so they took that too. Basically I paid an extra 100 to that. While it doesn't matter in the end, it really messed me up for the time being cause it left me 100 dollars short that what I would

I appreciate in insight on the other information.

 

[pattytx]

So, if you didn't spend the money, you still have it with which to make up (basically) the shortage from this one.

Deductions like what, 401K? If you have 5% deducted on $290 more than you should have, then on the subsequent check, you have 5% deducted on $290 LESS than you should have, then it all comes out in the wash. Unless payroll didn't take into consideration the "wage adjustment" before calculating that particular deduction. Is that what happened? If so, go talk to payroll.

 

[MrJenkins]

So, if you didn't spend the money, you still have it with which to make up (basically) the shortage from this one.

Deductions like what, 401K? If you have 5% deducted on $290 more than you should have, then on the subsequent check, you have 5% deducted on $290 LESS than you should have, then it all comes out in the wash. Unless payroll didn't take into consideration the "wage adjustment" before calculating that particular deduction. Is that what happened? If so, go talk to payroll.

Yes, I still have the money so it works out. It's my education loan repayment. Basically the way it's set up is I pay a minimum of X dollars. Once I hit a certain threshold, they take out a certain percentage.

With my normal day to day check at 40 hours, my payment is 75 dollars. When they overpaid me, 175 was taken out for my educational loan.

When they did the wage adjustment, they still took out the minimum of 75 dollars. So for the last 2 weeks, I paid a total of 250, instead of 150.

While I know I have to pay my loan back, programs were designed in order to help people pay back their education loans. 100 dollars in this time doesn't complete crush me, but the reason I was on the program is obvious because of my bills are tight at the current moment and it's better to have a low paying job instead of no job.

I am out looking for work, but it's not really panning out the way I had hoped for.

Thanks for your feed back

 

[pattytx]

I know the feeling. Try to look on the bright side, namely, that you have a job in this economy and that your educational loan payback will happen a couple of paychecks earlier. FWIW, that's a strange payback scheme; in my over 30 years in payroll, I've never seen that escalation calculation.

Good luck.

 

[MrJenkins]

I know the feeling. Try to look on the bright side, namely, that you have a job in this economy and that your educational loan payback will happen a couple of paychecks earlier. FWIW, that's a strange payback scheme; in my over 30 years in payroll, I've never seen that escalation calculation.

Good luck.

thank you patty.
You are right it's better to have a job in this economy. The reason it was set up that way was because I had a base pay +commission in my last position. My base pay is what I based my living off of, so the commission was a "bonus" in my eyes since I wasn't always guaranteed it.

The pay back was based on my "base" rate and if my check was hiring than that base rate, they would deduct more because I wanted to pay back more if I made more (not sure if that makes sense).

Well my commission part has gone away, so now I basically just make my base pay. Once they "overpaid me", then the pay back increased.

I didn't realize I was in a unique situation as far as payback. It made the most sense to me

 

[pattytx]

Does make sense, just haven't seen it before.