Overpayment of wages Massachusetts Law

[ihavequestions99]

I live and work in Massachusetts.

My employer paid me last Thursday via direct deposit. They then took out the entire amount paid on the following Tuesday without notifying me. The direct deposit was not pending when they took back the amount paid. I called and asked why this happened. They told me that it was because I was overpaid. They were going to wait until the next payroll to pay me the correct amount but i complained and they cut me a manual check. I had to wait until that Thursday to receive the manual check because of the new year.

I believe this is illegal in Massachusetts but can not find any actual laws or bills on it. All I have found is petitions for bills. Can someone tell me if this is allowed under Massachusetts state law, and if it is not what I should do?

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Not paying you on the payday is likely a violation. Odds are when you signed up for direct deposit you agreed to allow them to reverse an incorrect deposit.

They can't reverse a partial amount of your check.

 

[cbg]

Under banking laws, they either reverse the entire amount or they don't reverse at all. It is NOT illegal to reverse an incorrect deposit. You've got a very, very weak maybe on the timing of your pay (MA has the shortest lag time between the end of the pay period and the required pay date of any state in the US) but having dealt with them on many occasions, I can tell you that since you DID get paid, a complaint to the AG's office (which functions as the DOL in MA) would go to the very bottom of the priority list.