Overpaid employee
GLC
174 Posts
We have an ee (exempt)who was pregnant last year. After the baby was born, she went PT. We just found out that Finance did not adjust her salary to reflect the PT hours. Since the baby was born, she has still been getting paid for 40 hours when she should have been paid for 30 hours, her new PT hours. She was overpaid by $6,000. She questioned her salary to our Accounting person because it was very close to her FT salary. The accounting person, who was fired last year for numerous mistakes, told her it was correct because the salary reflected a recent annual raise and because she had received her master's degree. The ee does not feel she should repay us since it was our fault. Can we legally ask her to repay? We can set her up on a payment plan.
Comments
My knee jerk reaction would have been a negative on going back for overpayment of wages, if in fact that is the case given that the employee was told the salary remained the same for the PT work due to wage increase. Going forward, if the company now wanted to reclassify the position, do an analysis of what the position was worth on a PT basis, and adjusted salary accordingly, I would think the employee could then either accept the reclassification or seek employment elsewhere.
If there was a conversation between ER and EE and then ER just made a mistake - there is plenty of precedent for recovering the dollars. The EE is being unjustly enriched for the ERs mistake.
That said, you might have to go to court to get a judgement and then try to collect. Unless you are in small claims courts, add the attorneys fees to the whole mess.
Perhaps you can negotiate a reasonable settlement and take it out of future wages and/or raises, if any.
If an adjustment was intended and discussed, some sort of personnel actions form, or at least a memo, should have been cut by the supervisor instructing payroll to adjust the pay.
Did I say 'gentleman' from Minnesota?
She questioned whether the salary paid was correct, was told it was correct, therefore I believe the company should eat the loss. They should immediately set her down and tell her what her new salary will be and begin from there. They should also discipline supervisor for not fulfilling one of his responsibilities.
My daughter-in-law had the same problem (only she was not exempt). Told Store Manager she didn't want Assistant Manager position and wanted to go back to Cashier. You would have thought the Store Manager would know that a Cashier makes less than an Assistant Manager. #-o Store Manager never changed pay rate, daughter-in-law mentioned pay rate at least 3 times to 3 different people, now 6 months later is being penalized because Store Manager did NOT do their job.
Whole situation makes me sick.
Sorry.....from the employee's perspective, they questioned the pay rate to the appropriate people and now because that person did not investigate the employee is being penalized. Not just $100 but THOUSANDS of dollars.
Your only legal recourse would be to fire her, label her as a debtor and then take her to court to collect. Going on what you have told us here so far, GLC, I don't think you would win.
Sincerely,
The "Gentleman" from Minnesota. (Wow! I've never been called that before, which is probably no shock to y'all. Thanks anyway, Don. You made my day. Now I will be informing my wife of how I must be addressed upon entering the household from now on.)
>on 40 hours per week. How can employee expect
>they will receive the same salary for working
>less hours.
And what salary does she receive if she works over 40 hours?
Negotiate a new salary going forward and let it go!
My $0.02 worth........
The Balloonman
The question was asked (loosely quoting), "How could somebody think they would make the same money for 30 vs 40 hours per week?" The answer is that the FLSA tells them to think that because it is regulation, unless a change of pay is negotiated/mandated by one party or the other or both.
If my employer tells me they expect me to start leaving on Fridays from now on at 3:30 in the afternoon, I will not assume that my pay is being cut. I will assume my pay is the same. On the other hand, I would resent them making me work that extra 30 minutes on Friday afternoons. x:-)
As to the question of should you have the employee pay back. The company made the mistake. It seems like the employee expected her salary to be reduced because she questioned it. She was told that it was correct so she went on about her business. I would have done the same thing in her shoes. I think the company should just eat it and re negotiate her new salary in writing.