Can Employer Take Back Overpaid Wages?

[Saint Cy of JFC]

So my employer has been overpaying me since switching to a new payroll system ( we use to submit manual timesheets to a person but they quit so the company went 100% digital for timesheets). To my knowledge I have used the system 100% correctly, but I've been getting overpaid by 500 dollars each month.

My question for anyone in the know is can my employer take back those wages if they notice? Let's say it happens for a year, then they notice, can they take back the 6000 extra dollars they paid me? Is there any kind of expiration on this?

 

[Rubashov]

So my employer has been overpaying me since switching to a new payroll system ( we use to submit manual timesheets to a person but they quit so the company went 100% digital for timesheets). To my knowledge I have used the system 100% correctly, but I've been getting overpaid by 500 dollars each month.

My question for anyone in the know is can my employer take back those wages if they notice? Let's say it happens for a year, then they notice, can they take back the 6000 extra dollars they paid me? Is there any kind of expiration on this?

Not 100 percent what the law is in the US, here yes they can garnish your wages back but at an agreed rate, after all its their **** up and they can't turn around and cause you harm because of it. How long has it been going on? if its recent let them know a decent employer should let you keep it for being honest, if like a lot of people you don't check your pay and live tapping your card and you could be up for a heap of cash, say nothing and pretend you didn't notice. A storeman at work was overpaid nearly a million dollars over 23 years at work, he paid them back 50 bucks a week for like a year, then retired.

 

[LogGrad98]

So my employer has been overpaying me since switching to a new payroll system ( we use to submit manual timesheets to a person but they quit so the company went 100% digital for timesheets). To my knowledge I have used the system 100% correctly, but I've been getting overpaid by 500 dollars each month.

My question for anyone in the know is can my employer take back those wages if they notice? Let's say it happens for a year, then they notice, can they take back the 6000 extra dollars they paid me? Is there any kind of expiration on this?

Yes they can. Usually they do it through payroll deductions over time. Some employers will deep-dick people and take it all at once because they suck, but it happens. It's not that far removed from things like a bank accidentally putting extra money in your account and then taking it back.

Generally different states can have different laws about this. But federally they can just take it back as they see fit. It's covered under the FLSA. And similar to a bank error there is no expiration that I know of. Might be something like that in some states specifically, but I doubt it.

Your best bet is to go talk to them asap. And don't spend the money.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Yes they can. Usually they do it through payroll deductions over time. Some employers will deep-dick people and take it all at once because they suck, but it happens. It's not that far removed from things like a bank accidentally putting extra money in your account and then taking it back.

Generally different states can have different laws about this. But federally they can just take it back as they see fit. It's covered under the FLSA. And similar to a bank error there is no expiration that I know of. Might be something like that in some states specifically, but I doubt it.

Your best bet is to go talk to them asap. And don't spend the money.

Yeah, I figured.

The weird thing is that my paystubs (just started actually checking them) are saying I got a raise (and on top of that, this last paycheck on I got "retro regular pay" which from what I read, is money your employer pays you extra because they didnt pay you enough previously). It's not like I'm being paid overtime incorrectly or double logging hours.

I guess maybe they just gave me a 6K raise without telling me? That's happened to me before in other jobs, but this one they've called to tell me about paying me 40 dollars more a month before lmao.