What are the laws in regards to your employer paying you?
When I was hired, my paydays were the 15th and last day of each month. Additionally, I had direct deposit, so I got paid on exactly those days. However, when I was laid off thru no fault of my own(damn that dot com death!), they cancelled the direct deposit for my severance check (although another company I was laid off from still paid my severance thru direct deposit) and are mailing me my check.
That means that instead of getting paid on exactly the 31th of October, they mailed out my check yesterday and I’ll get it who knows when…?
Also, if a company does do something like this, and you grew accustomed to getting your check on the same date every time for years (and essentially planned your budget around those dates), are there any repercussions against the company if you piss payment due dates and accrue late fees?
I don’t think it would be fair for the company to argue that one should have money in their savings account (which I don’t) because I wasn’t under contract to have money in savings, I was just under contract to get paid on time.
So, I guess my questions (for now) are: Is it legal for a company to cancel direct deposit for laid off employees on their final paychecks? What about companies being sued for late fees on bills?
in NYS they have to make the check available to you by the date on the check - that’s all I know on this subject. I don’t know if that means that they must mail it by then or just make it available for you to pick up.
Same in Illinois. They must make it available to you. It would have been NICE of them to tell you but as long as the money COULD’VE been received by you they aren’t at fault.
I don’t think the money could have been received by me, in the sense that I go pick it up.
According to my friend (also laid off at the same time with the same company; hasn’t gotten his check either), the checks were being sent from Texas on the 31st to Atlanta, and then they would be sorted in Atlanta and shipped to Ohio, where I live (and worked).
So I have no idea when I would get it.
The only time they mentioned that it would not be direct deposit was on the very last day when I had to sign my severance papers. I think I could argue that I was under duress and only signed the papers to insure that I would still receive my severance and couldn’t argue the direct deposit point at the time…
This is largely a state-specific question and a matter of contract. My best guess as to your questions, subject to particular statutes in your state, is:
Unless your employment contract specifies a manner of payment, any tender of funds should satisfy their obligation to pay. Most states recognize the “mailbox rule” which holds that the date of mailing is equivalent to the date of payment; and
Consequential damages are available in most (all?) states for a breach of contract. Consequential damages include those damages which naturally and forseeably flow from the breach. Damages for late payment of bills may be seen, state-by-state, as acceptable damages, or too remote from the breach, depending upon judicial interpretation.
State statutes can trump any of these general principals, and, in general, hiring an attorney to challenge these practices would cost you much more than the late fees. Good luck, and sorry to hear about your misfortune.
If you’re in Ohio, you can call Joel Hyatt, right? He’ll (well, one of his employees) will do an initial consultation for free. Or at least that’s what they did back when I lived there.
I got my severance check today, and it’s short by about $310.21!!! My severance pay was supposed to be the equivalent of two weeks pay, so I know how much I should have gotten, since I previously got paid on a two week basis.
The amount, before taxes, of the severance pay ($1,462) was approximately equal to my actual pay for 80 hours of work ($1461.48) which is fair enough.
However, the amount of federal income tax taken out equals $402.05!! The other deductions like State, Social and Medicare are all approximately normal.
Why the big chunk of Federal taxes taken out? My friend who was laid off with me, and made the same as me, had that large amount taken out as well.
I planning on calling them on Monday (wouldn’t you know that I get this on the weekend!) to straighten things out, I’m just asking you guys for more information before I go in.
Since they apparently screwed up with the federal income tax, will it be that much harder for me to get my extra money back? Will I be eligible for that as a refund from the govt next April? Also, if it was a federal tax screwup, how can I guarantee that the extra money they took out for federal taxes does in fact go to the govt? (I mean, if it wasn’t mean to go there in the first place, how can I make sure that it’s actually going there?)
Okay, apparently since I received my severance check after my offical last date of employment, it was consider an out-of-cycle check and was taxed at the rate of approx 30%.
I too was laid off from a dot bomb in May. We actually got a decent severance package though (2 months pay, though most of us had been there only 8 months) and money for COBRA during that period (which I didn’t need since I had my wife’s coverage).
Well, it was still a big check, but the government treated it as a higher tax bracket and took a HUGE chunk out. That sure was nice of them…
