Ok here is the story, I was on my company (georgia Pacific) over 6 weeks about pay they owed me for not having me at the right pay scale, they owed me over $500.00 and I got that last week.. I get paid bi-weekly and this week is our payroll check week and I checked online at midnight to see my pay and man it was nice...But I see they are paying my a dollar over what my pay rate is suppost to be.. Before they were paying me $4.00 under my actual pay rate...What do I do now since they are over paying me? Should I just keep my mouth shut? Should I go tell them hey look your over paying me. I dont know if they would come out and take that pay back out on my next check or what. I really could use the extra money they are paying me but I dont know about it...What would you do in this case?

 

Tell the company NOW.

They were honest with giving you the backpay they owed you, now you should be honest with them in return. I know you could use the money, but that's not the issue. Integrity and honesty are. First, tell your boss about the error, even if you know you'll wind up down in the payroll department telling them again - it's your chance to make him aware of your honesty and the fact that you can be trusted. Yes, they'll probably deduct the accumulated amount from your next paycheck, but it's better to correct the amount when it's small, rather than waiting until an audit catches the mistake and the amount you'll own them is much larger than it is now. And rest assured, they WILL catch the mistake - it's just a matter of when.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a no-brainer situation.

 

I agree. Honesty is the only way to go...

 

ya you dont want them to catch it later and garnish a whole check or somthing

 

19 years in the navy has taught me that you must address pay issues immediately (those both in your favor and those not in your favor). Having to pay the money back at a later date (they will find it eventually) is much more painful because the amount will be larger. I didn't get a paycheck once as a result of an overpayment. That sucks as a young married sailor!

 

Please tell them now. you'll feel beter and the Co will think a great deal of our honesty. i had a similar thing a few yrs back and the Co. didn't forget it. my schedualed raises came on time as opposed to the others(3) that didn't speak up right away. seems the had to go through 3 extra evals !!

 

Yep, nothing is more tramatic than getting your pay stub and it being $0 becuase they caught their mistake and took their money back..

Tell them now. Hey it also shows that you care about the business and are an honest employee.

 

i agree with everyone. honesty is the best policy.

a few years ago, i was in the same situation. i was underpaid for a job i did. i called the company owner, and explained the deal. i was charging $75/hour, but accounting only paid me $50/hr.

he said he would straighten it out, and he did. but instead of reimbursing me the $25/hr they owed, accounting paid the whole bill again at the proper rate.

2 weeks later i was in the area, so stopped in the office and tried to hand the company owner a $4,800 check for the overpayment. he was so flattened by my honesty he said keep it.


so i made it up to him by not charging him for the next move i made.

 

I agree with what everyone else has said. What goes around, comes around. A mans word is gold as far as I'm concerned.

 

I personally wonder why anyone would have any question about what to do. I agree...it's a no brainer!!!

 

Trust me, if you don't tell them, they will find it, and take it back. They may not say anything to you about it, but they will likely wonder if you had noticed or not, likely figure you did, since you had been paying attention before, so likely you would now. Better to be honest with them now, than have to deal with the consequences later. It is nice to have the extra cash, but it will come at a price.

 

Tell them about it now. It's not worth the risk. I got overpaid once by $80 and asked my foreman what to do. He said not to say anything, so I didn't. My employer never found out but I still feel guilty and worry about it.

 

Honesty is a long term investment that will always provide positive dividends...to do otherwise can only provide a quick short term gratification with longterm negative results. The biggest hit comes to integrity and self-respect.

I doubt you would have asked if you didn't intend on doing the right thing anyway. If you had convinced yourself to keep the monmey...you wouldn't have bothered to ask here in the first place.

 

I was overpaid once by the company I worked for.
When I went to the payroll dept. about it, the people in payroll got mad at me about it.
I told them then that if they ever overpaid me again I wouldn't say a word to anyone about it.
I was trying to be honest.

 

Tell your management right away. My manager was complaining that she was not paid for month of dec 2006 only to find out later that she was over paid for last 11 months and now she owes the company a little bit on Jan pay check too. Talk about pay back!