Retro Active Pay For a Raise

cbcolorado

A couple of our employees were due reviews in June but the managers were not able to get to them until now (mid august). If they are given a raise - besides maybe being correct for morale - is it required to make the raise retroactive?

Carol CA

You are not required to give employees raises unless you have some sort of contractural agreement. Times have been tough at my company and ALL employees are having their reviews delayed 3 months with no retros. Unless you put something in writing telling these people you would give them increases in June, I don't think you are legally required to give retros. Just be sure they are not all in a protected class.

On the employee morale issue, is it really fair to penalize the employee because the supervisor didn't get their act together and get the paperwork processed in time? I would give the retro and counsel the supervisors about their responsibilities. Perhaps it should reflect on THEIR performance review and increase that they are not doing their job in a timely manner.

Rockie

We do retro back pay for employees if their review is delayed due to supervisor oversite or laziness. No supervisor gets their increase if they have outstanding reviews due. What a great incentive for them to do the right thing!

Pork

As stated before raises are not mandated by law; however, fair and consistent treatment of all employees (exempt and non-exempt) gets interwoven into the interpretation of law ane your company's execution of company policy within the law. I use the example previously stated and force management and department heads to realize the effectiveness of being in control of the excuses for not getting something done. We set up the review schedule by department heads for managers in their organiatiuons, which also includes time for the managers to cover the reviews and increases of all of their people. We then have a dead line for the Department Heads to approve their increases and evaluations and to add their comments to each. Those department heads who fail to get their organizations evals and pay increases in on time must turn their project in to the General Manager for his approval and comments. Once in place our HR & Payroll jobs are much easier. Surprise, surprise everyone seems to be happy even if they did not get an increase for they know where they stand in their performance. Where there is a problem or concern the individual leaves or starts to working toward an improved performance and promotion. I hopethis helps, Pork

Gillian

there is no law but you can put "late reviews, got a raise, but nothing retroactive" high on the list of actions which create employee resentment.