Help: Legal Question Concerning Payroll at Work

[Ranger X]

If the company you work for pays you WWAAAYYY more than you deserve, and say they direct deposit to your checking account, what does the law say? Do I have to give it back or can I skip town without having something terrible follow my personal records? Any jail time?

The company screwed up on my paycheck but I did the right thing in giving the money back. But my question is, what does the law say and is it improper termination if my boss fires me for keeping the loot?

 

[IBhacknU]

I think it may be different denpending on what state you live in?

 

[Ranger X]

I live in California.

 

[64bitloopy]

I do believe the company has the right to short your next paycheck to correct any previous overages.

 

[Tripleshot]

What 64bitloopy said ,however,if you quit the next day and left,it's yours. I wouldn't advise it unless they overpaid you enough for a dang good lawyer just in case.


Thats from my HR wife.

 

[IBhacknU]

I've forwarded the question on to my mom who whould know the 'legal' answer.

Let's see how quick she is.

 

[Ranger X]

The funny part is, Payroll freaked out. If they had the law behind them, why would they display this form of mannerism? I don't get it. Ok to inform you of how much I got, I got paid at the rate of 600/hr (since I get paid by the hour). It was a lot but after taxes took out over 50% (can you believe that?!), it was just decent but not enough to skip town.

 

[IBhacknU]

WOW!


That's like 100 times more per hour than I make. I need a new job!

 

[Viper GTS]

My payroll department screwed up once by essentially giving me two checks: One printed check to me, & then electronically depositing someone else's money into my savings account. They were able to withdraw the money just as easily as they deposited it, though.

Viper GTS

 

[64bitloopy]

They were freaking because they have to correct taxable income and wages with the government.
You think that their job is on the line after a screwup that big, hell yes. I'd be freakin too if I paid you that much.

 

[The Stigenator]

why should you bother.. they screwed up.. ask long as you are not in the payroll dept and didnt write the check to yourself.. you are free to go.

However if conscience tells you to returns.. then do.. to get fired for that is not beacuse they made a mistake.

 

[~zonker~]

This happened to me once. They just sucked the money back out of my checking account when they figured it out. Yes, they can do that....

 

[kranky]

64bitloopy & Tripleshot are right.

You did the right thing by speaking up. After all, the money really wasn't yours anyway.

True story: some years back, I was given a pay raise that got calculated wrong by payroll, and they started paying me about 3% more than I should have been getting. After a couple of paychecks, I went to the payroll guy and asked him to check it. He saw right away what had happened, fixed it, told me they would never have caught it and he was amazed I mentioned it. I didn't tell anyone else about it, not wishing to embarrass the payroll guy.

The rest of the story was that (I found out much later) he told about a half-dozen big shots about what happened, and I got a reputation as a person who was known to be honest even when it could have been covered up. Not long afterwards I got a big break and was promoted into a much better job. I've been promoted three more times since then and my boss said just last month "Of the five people who work for me, you are the one that I can trust all the time". I am not required to spend a lot of time doing cover-your-@ss stuff because my word is accepted. Now maybe I would have been as lucky anyway, but had I not said something, the payroll guy wouldn't have talked to the big shots, and my name might never have come up for the first promotion.

I'm waaaay farther ahead now compared to where I would have been with the extra 3% and no promotion. So in my case, I'm glad I spoke up. Hopefully good things will come from it in your case also.

 

[geno]

ahem - how much extra did you get? Just curious

 

[Ranger X]

I got a 8 digit check for working 2 weeks. That's like CEO money!

 

[geno]

eh....8 Digits?!?! Holy %@%&^$&%!!!!!

Withdraw it all from your account and say "what money?" hahah

 

[Pretender]

8 digits and you still don't think that's enough to take the next flight to "Somewhereelse, HI (Hawaii)"? Oh wait, are you counting the 2 digits after the decimal as part of the 8 digits?

 

[vi edit]

Eight digits!!! great googly moogly! :Q

 

[Ranger X]

No eight digits w/o counting the digits after the decimal. Let's just say I got a check for an amount where the first number starts with a 3 and after taxes, the first number started with a 1. Ouch!

 

[Pretender]

You GAVE BACK 10+ million dollars? Do the words "retirement", "mansion", and "computer heaven" mean anything to you?

 

[vi edit]

Damn, for ten mil, I think I could smuggle myself out of the country and live like a king for the rest of my life.

 

[Pretender]

Smuggle yourself out of the country? Dude, this is a payroll error. You didn't cheat them, so you probably can't be forced to give back the money. KEEP THE MONEY, LEAVE THE JOB, LEAVE THE STATE, CHANGE YOUR NAME (so they cant try to contact you to beg for their money), BUY A NEW IDENTITY, GET A NEW JOB (or just invest the money and live off the profits).

 

[Ranger X]

OOOPPS, I meant 7 digits with the decimal. Yikes, I can't count lol.

 

[Pretender]

ok, so to summarize, the figure on the check was similar to the following (after tax):

1,XXX,XXX.00

Still a nice sum, I would've suggested trying to keep it and getting a new job and making it harder for them to contact you.

 

[vi edit]

Accounting mistake or not, I believe that they could hold you legally responsible for jumping town if you kept the $$.

Besides, there's a good chance that you wouldn't be able to get that amount anyway. Many businesses have an account set up that have the exact amount of money for that payroll run transfered over to an account the night payroll is run. If everyone is salaried, or even hourly for that matter, they your employer knows roughly how much goes to that account every week/two weeks, ect. If that number is a million off, then chances are they will catch that and put a hold on the payment, it will just take a matter of time. The smaller the company, the larger the chance of getting caught.

In essence, you are stealing from the company, and it is no small amount either. If the company is small enought, there is even a chance that you will bankrupt it. You can bet that if that is the case, they will surely go after you legally.

My advice, take a picture of it, frame it, and hand it over to your boss.