Comments on: Pay Discrepancy https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html Everything to make HR better Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:56:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 By: Anonymous https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2894 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:56:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2894 I had a client (many) years ago who were in serious union litigation (canada, marine unions) over an employee’s pension investment — being based on an ‘annual salary’ not the actual hourly payments. The employee had ‘to the penny’ records of his paychecks going back forever, and calculated that the company had defrauded him out of 14 cents per year for 25 years (yes — less than 5 bucks Canadian).
The Union rules meant that they had to go forwards with the complaint, since it was ‘documented’ and va;lid – if appalingly trivial.

I don’t know the outcome for sure(unfortunately) – I think they settled out of court.

The moral is: There is no sum so insignificant that it wont piss off someone. So always be generous.

Tony

]]> By: Corey J Feldman https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2893 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:02:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2893 They should round up; I have never worked anywhere that didn’t. It avoids people feeling cheated. It is not about the 7 dollars, it is about feeling you were treated fairly. We are social creatures and are wired for the desire for fairness. I am not sure if this experiment has been done, but I pretty sure something similar has been. If you were to offer someone money, tell person A that he has a choice, he can take 20 dollars, but if he does Person B (a stranger) will get 27. But if he takes 13, Person B will only get 13 as well. There will be a large number of people that will choose to take the lesser amount and preserve the “fairness”

That said, I totally agree with evil. Its 7$ get over it.

]]> By: Katherine https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2892 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:54:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2892 This is why we always say “you’ll be going from to $11.15 an hour to $11.71 an hour. This is about a 5% increase.” At least when I have a say.

Although I’ve worked at my company 7 years, am salaried/exempt and have had my increase given hourly, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and annually, depending on who wrote up the paper work.

]]> By: Anonymous https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2891 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:48:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2891 Our employees are eligible for an annual 4% merit increase figured on their hourly salary. We use standard rounding, round up for .005 or more, dropping .004 or less. Our employees understand and don’t complain because they know ahead of time and it is applied to everyone.

]]> By: Anonymous https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2890 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:47:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2890 Our employees are eligible for an annual 4% merit increase figured on their hourly salary. We use standard rounding, round up for .005 or more, dropping .004 or less. Our employees understand and don’t complain because they know ahead of time and it is applied to everyone.

]]> By: DrinkingTea https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2889 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:46:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2889 Was this letter written by someone in HR dealing with this issue or the employee him or herself?

We used to have an employee who was subject to a tiny local tax on the first few thousand dollars of income. Every February, she would call in a lather because her check that week was roughly a dime greater than it was before. At least fifteen minutes would be spent talking her out of her hysterics. She alternated each year between not wanting to pay back taxes at the end of the year and thinking that we stole a few cents from her from the beginning of the year. Even if she had to pay that huge tax back at the end of the year, it would have been easily paid with less than it would take to buy one bag of french fries.

]]> By: Kevin https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2888 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:24:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2888 I totally agree as well…I worked for several years in a payroll department and would be contacted because someone was upset that they were salaried (making over a $100k/yr) and their check fluctuated by a penny. Stupidity…and yes…we do talk about you if you are going to be that stupid.

]]> By: HR Godess https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2887 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:29:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2887 Always, always, always round up. If you were told you were getting $100 and you got $93. You would be upset. Even a penny more is worth it instead of making the company look cheap.

I agree with EHRL – let it go!

]]> By: jaded hr rep https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2886 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:33:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2886 Yeah, would make employee look like a dork if s/he complained, but this is one of the things I, and most of my HR colleagues, am obsessively detailed about because we know there’s always one of these dorks in the company. Boo to the HR staff that didn’t catch this.

]]> By: The Engineer https://www.evilhrlady.org/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2885 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:26:00 +0000 http://localhost/wordpress/2008/08/pay-discrepancy.html#comment-2885 Congratulations! That’s great! A 4.995% raise is much better than what I received this year.

Take Evil’s advice on this one.

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