Compliance, Time & Attendance
Mistakes are an unfortunate reality of doing business, but mistakes with payroll are different – and potentially extremely problematic. When you overpay an employee, you lose money. When you underpay an employee, you agitate him or her – and could potentially face legal repercussions. These instances occur more frequently with hourly employees but can happen to salaried workers as well. Here’s how to handle each situation.
According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers that make a one-time overpayment to an employee can recoup the overpayment by deducting that amount from the employee’s next paycheck. (Keep in mind state regulations can differ.) But don’t go rogue. Keep your employees informed by following these 4 steps:
Determine how much you overpaid the employee during the pay period.
Contact the employee you overpaid and breakdown the situation (no need to panic)
Inform them you plan to deduct the overpayment out of their next paycheck
Ask them if this will cause a financial burden (remember, when an employee receives extra money–whether they notice it or not–they may spend it right away).(If yes, try to arrange installments that you both agree on. This will hopefully reduce the changes of resentment.)
(If no, simply make the deduction.)
If an employee has been underpaid, it needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Follow our step-by-step guide to working out how to fix an underpayment:
- Work out how long the employee has been underpaid
- Work out how much the employee was actually paid
- Work out how much the employee should have been paid
- Calculate how much the employee has been underpaid
- Backpay the employee
- Keep up to date with future wage increases
Because the number one reason for overpayment or underpayment is human error, you should consider automating your payroll process if you haven’t already. To learn more about how Highflyer can help your company avoid complicated payroll mistakes, call us today or visit https://www.highflyerhr.com/our-solution/payroll/.
Company Culture, Employment Classification
It depends. There are many reasons an employee may choose to use a job title on LinkedIn that is different than their official job title with your organization. For one, employees may feel that their job title doesn’t accurately or meaningfully describe the work they are doing. A job title that makes perfect sense internally may not be easily decipherable outside the organization. Numbered titles like Administrative Assistant 1 or 2 don’t, in themselves, tell you which one is higher. Trendy titles like Brand Evangelist may get overlooked in searches.
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Compliance, HR Solutions, Time & Attendance
No, federal law requires you to pay employees for all hours they have worked. While you can and should have a policy defining job abandonment (e.g., if an employee no-shows and no-calls three days in a row, you’ll take that as a resignation), you are not allowed to deduct or withhold pay because an employee quits without notice.
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Employee Classification, Employment Classification, Fair Labor Standards Act, FLSA Challenges
Any employee can be classified as a nonexempt employee, although we generally recommend that all employees in the same role have the same classification.
That being said, exempt employees sometimes feel there is a certain “status” involved in being salaried and exempt. If you decide to reclassify an employee, aim to do so in a manner that does not belittle them or cause them to become disengaged.
When reclassifying employees from exempt to nonexempt, it’s important to clearly communicate the change in writing, make the change effective in payroll and job descriptions, and communicate your policies and expectations that will be affected. You’ll also want to ensure that managers understand all applicable wage and hour laws impacting nonexempt employees and how they may affect their day-to-day work. These may include:
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Engaged Workforce
Question: Employees are spending a lot of time on thier phones (scrolling social media, browsing the internet, listening to music or podcasts). Can we prohibit personal phone use during work hours?
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Engaged Workforce
Q: We have a non-exempt employee who has been working from home. Do we need to pay her for time spent traveling to the office? She’s been asked to drop off some files during her normally scheduled work hours.
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