Overpayment of Wages
Fred
8 Posts
I have an employee that asked me an HR question that I don’t know the answer to. His wife is having a situation at her work, so thankfully this is NOT a situation that I’m dealing with at my company. Here’s the situation:
She is a physical therapist with a company that serves several nursing homes in our community. She is paid a different rate at each facility. She just discovered that she has been paid the wrong rate at one of the facilities ever since she started working for them in late 2005. She told them of the error – it was a higher rate than she should have been paid. They are now telling her that she owes them approx. $13,000 and they will begin “taking it out of her check.” I am assuming it will be some sort of a garnishment. I would think that since it was the company’s error that they cannot come back and forcefully take her pay, especially since it crosses over tax years where the employee has already paid taxes on these wages???? I have advised them to seek legal counsel, but I would love to know what you think…….. Thank you!
She is a physical therapist with a company that serves several nursing homes in our community. She is paid a different rate at each facility. She just discovered that she has been paid the wrong rate at one of the facilities ever since she started working for them in late 2005. She told them of the error – it was a higher rate than she should have been paid. They are now telling her that she owes them approx. $13,000 and they will begin “taking it out of her check.” I am assuming it will be some sort of a garnishment. I would think that since it was the company’s error that they cannot come back and forcefully take her pay, especially since it crosses over tax years where the employee has already paid taxes on these wages???? I have advised them to seek legal counsel, but I would love to know what you think…….. Thank you!
Comments
Good luck!
I remember when I worked in the banking industry, we occasionally had bank personnel put money incorrectly into customer's accounts. Some of them thought they should be able to keep the money since this was a "bank error". Sort of the same situation.
Most employers are reasonable in this sitaution in working out something with the employee.