Needed some advice and have tried this before;
Location: Minnesota
I(26F) have been working with this company for a little over a year, and found out about 10 months in that they were not paying me the rate they hired me at. We found out it was a mistake on my General Managers part, but no worries, she got it fixed. When I asked her about backpay for almost a years worth of pay that I never received, she said it would be taken care of.
I only got 30 days of backpay.
After another incident which left my GM fired and bringing in two temporary managers, I went to them and explained the situation, and asked them to look into the whole thing again. They did, and let me know I would be getting back all of the backpay, and that my old manager "clearly didn't fight hard enough for her employee". I was supposed to get that money on my paycheck yesterday.
They sent it to my sister, who had only been working at the same company for about two months. I called right away to let my current GM know, to which he responded with "This is all way above my paygrade. Theoretically can't your sister just send you your money?"
I feel like it's beyond just having my sister send me my money. What if they had sent it to someone else that wasn't my direct family member? My coworker told me companies can sue my sister if she spends any of the money that isn't "technically" hers, but, they sent it to her? Can a company really do that?
My Questions are; is this something I should leave up to my new manager to fix, or should I go above to HR? How far do I need to take this? If my sister refuses to move the money, will they take it from her/sue her?
Yes, payroll mistakes happen and the company can demand the money back. BUT, this is also an issue with payroll taxes. The company has to do this correctly.
If they paid her, she will be on the hook for taxes on that money. They will need to fix it through payroll.
I’m a cpa. Go straight to hr and tell them to fix it. She’ll be liable for the taxes, it will be on her earning record for SS, and her employment records will be incorrect. They need to fix this asap before year end.
Is your sister cooperative here?
Normally I'd be fine just getting paid from my sister, but taxation complicates this as she'd be on the hook for your taxes. Even if it's more work for them, I'd try and insist on them dealing with it correctly.
She is, and would have no problem sending me the money through our bank app, but my coworker scared me with the idea that if she does, our company might retaliate against her for not returning the money to them, for them to give to me.
I didnt even think about the tax/IRS implications until another friend of mine brought it up. I'm currently looking into contacting HR.
Talk to your payroll department (with the knowledge of your manager)
Having your sister transfer the money, even correcting for taxes, would still break tax laws and also reduce your social security when you retire. They need to fix it!
Sure the sister can send you the money . . . Is it gonna be taxed on her records or yours though
Id get a new job as soon as possible the irs is gonna be hard-core up there butts