Went from 40 hours to 2 hours and job has been paying the same salary

[Anonymous]

My sister put in her notice with her job in August to become a SAHM. Her job came back and asked if she can stay on for 2-4 hours per week as a decision maker on some long term projects she has been managing for years. She agreed as a way to keep her foot in the door of the work world. She joins a 1 hour meeting, a 30-min meeting, and responds to 1 hours of email per week. The company has still been paying her full salary ($150k) the entire time. Every month, she's still getting $12,500 gross. She had assumed her pay would scale down to $72/hr for 8-12 hours per month. She went back through the documentation and it was never discussed. They just asked her to say on for those hours, listed the duties, and she agreed.

When they notice, will she have to pay them back? Should she speak up? Consult a lawyer?

[Anonymous]

Why didn’t she immediately alert them? This seems like an obvious administrative error.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why didn’t she immediately alert them? This seems like an obvious administrative error.

I have no idea. She just told me after a few drinks over xmas and she was shocked by my big reaction.

[Anonymous]

That said if there is a lower salary to be negotiated, it would need to be more than $72 per hour. Sounds like her institutional knowledge and experience are not easily replaceable and perhaps she was underpaid all along.

[Anonymous]

Is she still an employee? Or a contractor? Did she terminate? Does she even know?

As a contractor she could be charging $1000 an hour.
But she may have to pay back a lot of money. Does she get pay statements?

[Anonymous]

They will claw it back eventually. She should tell them ASAP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is she still an employee? Or a contractor? Did she terminate? Does she even know?

As a contractor she could be charging $1000 an hour.
But she may have to pay back a lot of money. Does she get pay statements?

She is still an employee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she still an employee? Or a contractor? Did she terminate? Does she even know?

As a contractor she could be charging $1000 an hour.
But she may have to pay back a lot of money. Does she get pay statements?

She is still an employee

Oh and she gets her regular salary pay stubs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she still an employee? Or a contractor? Did she terminate? Does she even know?

As a contractor she could be charging $1000 an hour.
But she may have to pay back a lot of money. Does she get pay statements?

She is still an employee

Oh and she gets her regular salary pay stubs

If the paystub is saying she worked 80 hours then she is obviously going to have to repay it.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like they made a mistake by not addressing new pay terms. Since she's not an hourly worker, with no agreement on a new salary or pay structure, her employer will have no legal basis to require repayment. Doesn't mean they can't ask, but she is free to refuse and I don't see any legal grounds that would allow them to go after her for the money. Whether's she ethically bound is another question.

[Anonymous]

I would consult a lawyer with my questionable gains before keeping it. At best, she will have burned a bridge, raise questions about her ethics, and likely yield very poor reference like: on advice of counsel we cannot comment on any employment matter related to Marla.

What kind of clueless weirdo or crook gets more than one paystub showing 40 hours worked and paid and doesn't say something right away. As opposed to raking it in for 4 months?

[Anonymous]

What state are you in? Different states have different rules concerning clawbacks for compensation errors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she still an employee? Or a contractor? Did she terminate? Does she even know?

As a contractor she could be charging $1000 an hour.
But she may have to pay back a lot of money. Does she get pay statements?

She is still an employee

Oh and she gets her regular salary pay stubs

If the paystub is saying she worked 80 hours then she is obviously going to have to repay it.

This. I’d check what is written on the paystubs. If it’s showing that she worked 2 hours a week but she’s getting the same amount, I wouldn’t worry about it. The company is free to pay her what they want. If the want to pay her full salary for 2 hrs of work, that’s their choice. So long as she is recording her hours correctly, she’s fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she still an employee? Or a contractor? Did she terminate? Does she even know?

As a contractor she could be charging $1000 an hour.
But she may have to pay back a lot of money. Does she get pay statements?

She is still an employee

Oh and she gets her regular salary pay stubs

If the paystub is saying she worked 80 hours then she is obviously going to have to repay it.

This. I’d check what is written on the paystubs. If it’s showing that she worked 2 hours a week but she’s getting the same amount, I wouldn’t worry about it. The company is free to pay her what they want. If the want to pay her full salary for 2 hrs of work, that’s their choice. So long as she is recording her hours correctly, she’s fine.

Yeah. WAS she doing timesheets and if so, did she put in 2 hours or correct the prefilled one showing 40? Something seems fishy here, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she still an employee? Or a contractor? Did she terminate? Does she even know?

As a contractor she could be charging $1000 an hour.
But she may have to pay back a lot of money. Does she get pay statements?

She is still an employee

Oh and she gets her regular salary pay stubs

If the paystub is saying she worked 80 hours then she is obviously going to have to repay it.

This. I’d check what is written on the paystubs. If it’s showing that she worked 2 hours a week but she’s getting the same amount, I wouldn’t worry about it. The company is free to pay her what they want. If the want to pay her full salary for 2 hrs of work, that’s their choice. So long as she is recording her hours correctly, she’s fine.

Yeah. WAS she doing timesheets and if so, did she put in 2 hours or correct the prefilled one showing 40? Something seems fishy here, OP.

This is a fair point, but plenty of companies have systems that don't really require any action on the part of the employee. My paystub auto-fills 40 hours each week and I don't have to approve, acknowledge or even sign into the system. It just automatically pays me for a full week unless I proactively go in and change it. Not sure sis is on the hook if that's what is happening.