employment at will

joannie

Need some assistance, please concerning annual reviews, merit salary increases and employment at will. We have an employment at will disclaimer in our handbook which is given to all employees. We do annual performance evals. Generally, as a result of the eval, we give a merit increase. We do not state in our policy, handbook or on the performance eval that merit increases are guaranteed. Merit increases are written, but are not seen or signed by the employee. My questions is, would/could stating the increase for a salaried person in annual figures be construed as an employment contract?

NaeNae55

We always phrase it this way: "...which is the equivalant of $xx per pay period or $xx per year."

We use the same phrasing in our offer letters.

Good luck!

Nae

E Wart

Any time you "state salary" you should state in smallest time frame they are paid in (ie. if hourly, state their hourly salary; if salaried and paid weekly state weekly.) There is always the horror story of an employer who stated the employees salary annually and released the employee after several months at work. Employee took employer to court and used this document showing he had been "promised" this much salary. He won!!
(I think it is fine to say this equates to ... per year... but still say their salary is $X per hour, which equates to approximately x per year, of course depending upon number of hours worked (or weeks worked).)

E Wart