hourly pay - employer overpaid, now requests it back

[grizli]

What is the name of your state? OH
My wife was hired at xx$/hour on a Temporary Full Time positioin. Then cost of living went up and everyone in her department got a raise for $1.75/hour on top of original pay. So they paid everyone new hourly rate for 2 weeks and gave out 2 pay stubs with checks.
Now they claim they made a mistake and Temporary Full Time employees cannot get cost of living raise (is this even right?) and they want everyone to pay them back. But since people may have already spent the money, they will withheld the money from next paycheck.
Are they really allowed to do so? People budget their bills through their paycheck when they have stable income, and now it will be pretty much changed and people have to go back, which is ok if you get fired, stuff happens, but can her employer really withheld money like that even though people rely on that raise? Plus it's cost of living raise, how can not give it at all? Or take it back?

 

[CheeseBlotto]

Yes, overpayments must be paid back.

 

[xylene]

What is the name of your state? OH
My wife was hired at xx$/hour on a Temporary Full Time positioin. Then cost of living went up and everyone in her department got a raise for $1.75/hour on top of original pay. So they paid everyone new hourly rate for 2 weeks and gave out 2 pay stubs with checks.
Now they claim they made a mistake and Temporary Full Time employees cannot get cost of living raise (is this even right?) and they want everyone to pay them back. But since people may have already spent the money, they will withheld the money from next paycheck.
Are they really allowed to do so? People budget their bills through their paycheck when they have stable income, and now it will be pretty much changed and people have to go back, which is ok if you get fired, stuff happens, but can her employer really withheld money like that even though people rely on that raise? Plus it's cost of living raise, how can not give it at all? Or take it back?

Overpayments must be paid back true.

A overpayment is a transposed digit or HR error. A mistake

Giving a 1.75 raise across the board and then realizing it was mistake for a whole class of employee seems pretty incredible to me.

If an employee is given notice of an increase in pay rate, works the hours at that new increased pay rate, and then the company realizes they can't afford it.....

That isn't a correction of an overpayment. That is a retoractive salary cut. The employer can't do that.

You can't just "make a mistake" for a whole class of worker.

Can they cut their salary back to the old level. Yes. Do the workers who were given the raise for those two weeks get to keep it - yes. You have a right to know what you are paid. If the increase excluded Temp Full Time workers, then either explain that they are excluded from the cost of living adjustment when announced, or only notify those employees who are recieving the COLA raise, or give them a seperate notice they they would not be receiving the COLA. Before they worked the hours at a new pay rate, and definately before they paid them at that wage rate TWICE!


This poster should contact the Ohio Department of Commerce Wage and Hour Division.

 

[cbg]

I tend to agree with Xylene on this one. While technically overpayments can be required to be paid back, in this case I think the employer should eat the overage.

 

[pattytx]

I agree with Xylene too.

 

[eerelations]

Just as an FYI, employers are not legally required to give cost of living pay increases.

 

[grizli]

Just as an FYI, employers are not legally required to give cost of living pay increases.

but they already did... btw, they already cut another check with COLA of 1.75.
I just don't want them to pay like that for another 1-2 months, and then withhold the money from next paychecks, sounds pretty stupid to me. Especially when around 500+ employees are in situation like that.

 

[grizli]

ok, i know it's been a while, but only now they started fixing their problems.
So 3 checks were cut with COLA.
Last week they took NN amount of dollars for that COLA and they said if it was not enough - they will take out more. And that happened to 100s of people.
Now since it was said "That is a retoractive salary cut. The employer can't do that." - what should we do about this now?

 

[cbg]

Your wife (NOT YOU) should contact the Ohio state DOL and see what they advise.