Legal Question in Employment Law in Massachusetts

Taking back raises

5 months ago my employer made a mistake in my rate of pay. They inavertly gave me a $5hr raise instead of a $5 week. At the time I kinda thought it was wrong even though I've been there over3yrs with min. increases, but on the ''erging'' of others I didn't say anything. A boss came up to me ''off the record'' and stated that it was wrong, why didn't i tell anyone, etc.. I told him I thought I was getting a merit on the yrs of service, etc.. Long and short he said again ''off the record'' that I will be put back to my rate that he wanted to the first time and that I owed them $4,000. Is this legal to do? I don't want to start too much trouble but his ''off the record'' comments struck me as odd. My wife has sugested that they take pay out of my salary each week rather than paying it out by a check so it will show on my W2 form. What do you think?

Thank you


Asked on 10/28/06, 4:41 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: Taking back raises

You should call the Massachusetts Dept. of Labor, Wage and Hour division regarding the repayment issue - you should not simply write a check as you will then have $4000 in extra taxable income. Massachusetts limits how much can be deducted from an employees check to satify these issues.

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Answered on 10/28/06, 5:43 pm


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