I received a written offer for an exempt, salaried position of $2200 biweekly. Now, 9 months later, my employer is telling me that the salar...

Question

I received a written offer for an exempt, salaried position of $2200 biweekly. Now, 9 months later, my employer is telling me that the salary was based on 72 hours, but the hours I've been scheduled by my boss were 64 hours biweekly since I started with the company. Now our HR dept and my boss are telling me that the offer was a mistake and that I should have been only getting paid based on 64 hours and want me to pay them back over $4000 and are dropping my salary to reflect an hourly wage based on 64 hours and are changing my salary. This feels completely wrong. Can they do this? Do I have to pay them back $4000 even though they paid me what my salary said on the offer? If i do have to pay it back, how do I get my tax money, FICA, and medicare back because I paid those taxes on that income.

Answer

Some of this depends on the terms of your offer and the aceptance and -- if you have a written contract -- what it says. I would think that they cannot get you to pay back the $4000 if your agrement was for that amount. The 72 hours without overtime is a red flag and, depending on your actual job, you may have a valid wage and hour case.