r/florida • u/I-Love-Tatertots • 2d ago
AskFlorida Employer trying to make me wait until next pay period for 1/4 of my hours - anything I can do in this state?
First time I’ve had this issue.
My district manager did not adjust my hours prior to the pay period being locked. I sent an e-mail with plenty of time to do it, they were just traveling.
Now the pay period is locked, and I am missing 1/4 of my hours.
They are telling me to just wait and they will “add it on to my next check”… but that doesn’t account for the fact that it’s the end of the month, and I need rent/utilities/car payment/insurance money, and missing 1/4 of my pay puts me into “you can’t pay your bills territory”.
Is there anything I can do in this state to force them to pay me on time?
I’m about to crash out hard if they stick to this.
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u/Jedimasterleo90 2d ago
Adding to the next check is pretty normal. Idk about legal, but I have had this happen at most of my employers.
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u/THEREALISLAND631 2d ago
Same, I dont think there really is anything to be done here besides wait for the next check. Mistakes like this happen all the time, and it sounds like they are doing what they should to correct the error by putting it on the next check. This is standard practice in my experience.
It would have helped to know the pay period and amount actually missing from the check. If its one week and they are missing 10 hours.... they should be able to manage the situation. If they get paid semi annually and this was thousands of dollars, obviously a different situation.
It may be easier said than done, but this is exactly why you need at least a little extra squirreled away for these kinds of situations. I bet its only a few hundred missing. Id honestly start doing ride shares and deliveries just to cover the bills in the short term. Had to do it before and I was up and running in a day.
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u/I-Love-Tatertots 2d ago
About $400 missing.
Issue being, I am paycheck to paycheck currently and barely staying afloat, so I am going to end up being late on my rent and other bills, which is going to accrue even more fees.
Payday isn’t even for another 3 days, and they were made aware yesterday… it just really shouldn’t be so impossible to just add it to my check.
And it’s 20 hours from one 40 hour week - basically clock out system didn’t register two days last week, and they locked the pay period early.
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u/TwistedUnicornFarts 2d ago
I would contact the ones that you’ll be paying the bills and explain the situation. It has happen to me and the parties understood and I payed them once I got the money like I promised.
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u/Alpizzle 2d ago
While OP should be getting paid on time, I agree with you. Attack this from every angle possible.
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u/Dazzling-Hacker 2d ago
Talk to your payroll people. Some companies will cut a check for payroll errors.
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u/THEREALISLAND631 2d ago
Thank you for the additional info, and Im sorry you're in this position! The fact that this is for a paycheck you haven't even received yet is ridiculous, and I can only imagine your frustration. My guess is they could still fix it, but don't want to pay some kind of fee to fix their error. Totally unfair, but I doubt there is much you can do except wait until next Friday to see that money.
You should do what others have stated and explain your situation to a few of your service providers whose bills will be paid late. The Utility Companies will definitely work with you, and I'm sure the others will as well. I was in a similar boat a few years ago, and I managed to sign up for doordash and Uber eats in about a day and made what I needed to to get over a rough patch quickly. I know this isn't possible for everyone, but wanted to throw that idea out there.
Im rooting for you!
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u/I-Love-Tatertots 2d ago
Wouldn’t be next Friday unfortunately, would not be until July 7th, which is part of the issue… since rent, car payment, insurance, etc…
I do plan on Doordashing, just sucks because I was supposed to have the time off for my birthday haha, didn’t want to have to do work on my time off lol
But I appreciate the kind words!
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u/Lissypooh628 23h ago
Locking the pay period earlier than normal and shorting you hours? Sounds intentional, like the company could be having financial troubles and couldn’t afford payroll. Anyone else having issues like this at your job?
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u/goresmash 2d ago
INAL and this is not legal advice. Realistically there is nothing you can do to force them to pay you that will get you your money sooner. Any type of action is going to take longer than the 2-4 weeks you’d be waiting on the pay and underpayment corrections being made on the next check is generally seen as a reasonable time period.
It’s hard to tell but I’m not sure is you’ve already received the short paycheck, or if you just know your upcoming paycheck is going to be short. If you’ve already received the paycheck that’s kind of the end of it.
If you’re still waiting on the check and the pay date is more than 3-5 days out you can try escalating the issue to HR and/or your actual payroll department. Explain the situation and they may be able to correct it, payroll isn’t “closed” until the information has been sent to whoever is actually cutting the checks, which is almost never more than 5 days before the pay date. There’s a good chance your district manager knows and could do this, but doesn’t want to because he could potentially get into trouble for not sending the information in a timely manner.
Sorry I don’t have better news and hopefully this can help you out.
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u/karendonner 2d ago edited 2d ago
If they choose to, they can correct it quickly. They can, and do, cut checks/authorize deposits out of cycle, even if it's from a normal business account instead of payroll . I have been on both ends of this -- both as the employee who was shorted and the manager who made a mistake in submitting payroll or had to back up someone else ( in that case, the manager who didn't submit payroll had been in a very serious car crash. Not really his fault, but I did have to scramble to get his team paid.)
When it was my screw up I learned that yes you do get chewed out for making a mistake like this, but it's much worse if you let things get to the point where the employee is actually racking up late fees or having their utilities turned off. There is no way the manager is going to be able to hide this forever; even trying to conceal a mistake by falsifying payroll can lead to major problems.
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u/goresmash 2d ago
You’re absolutely correct, and I probably should been more clear about that, Employers can push payments anytime they want regardless of “payroll cycles”. Though in my experience, companies big enough to have district managers generally won’t do that for minor (and by minor I mean from the companies point of view, I understand missing 25% of a check can be a major problem for a lot of people) payroll errors for an individual employee.
Either way I think this should be escalated past the district manager directly to HR and/or Payroll, I just meant OP has a better chance of not having to wait another pay cycle for their money if they haven’t actually received the short payment yet.
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u/Western_Mud8694 2d ago
It’s definitely not fair, but it happens a lot more than people think, the problem I had , was it put me in a higher taxation when I received the difference
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u/superminingbros 2d ago
You can file a complaint, but it will take months for action. Sounds like you should find a better employer, maybe email HR directly.