Paying half of salary

[withonel]

What is the name of your state? CA

My employer changed the bi-weekly pay schedule for the new calendar year. This resulted in a 'short' payroll period. On 1/5/07 they paid for a one week pay period (12/25-12/31/06), the next paycheck will be on 1/19/07 for 1/1-1/14/07 and then every two weeks after that. Salaried employees were paid half their salary on 1/5/07, so they will have only 25 pay checks in 2007 with full pay plus the 1/2 check received on 1/5/07. The company says it will be made up in 2008, is that legal?

 

[moburkes]

What is the name of your state? CA

My employer changed the bi-weekly pay schedule for the new calendar year. This resulted in a 'short' payroll period. On 1/5/07 they paid for a one week pay period (12/25-12/31/06), the next paycheck will be on 1/19/07 for 1/1-1/14/07 and then every two weeks after that. Salaried employees were paid half their salary on 1/5/07, so they will have only 25 pay checks in 2007 with full pay plus the 1/2 check received on 1/5/07. The company says it will be made up in 2008, is that legal?

There is no law that states that you need to have 26 paychecks. As long as they are being paid for the time worked, I don't see anything illegal.

 

[mlane58]

Under California law with few exceptions, you must be paid twice during each calendar month on days designated in advance by your employer as regular paydays. So as long as the employer noptified and posted the change, then you need to adjust to the change and if you can't look for other employment.

 

[pattytx]

Agreed. You are still earning exactly the same as you were earning before. There is no violation of law here.

 

[withonel]

thanks for the feedback

I'm an hourly employee so it does not affect me directly I get paid for all hours worked. I work in the HR dept and have been getting questions from salaried employees. The view was the employee is told they will make, for example, 40,000/yr, there are 26 pay periods in a year so 40,000 is divided by 26 which = 1538.47 each pay period. However for the first pay period of 2007 they were paid 769.24; they will then get 25 pay checks for the rest of 2007 at 1538.47 ea, so by the end of 2007 their total pay will be 39,230.99.
The other reason it was questioned is the deductions for benefits remained the same for this paycheck. Deductions are divided by 26 for the plan year, which runs Jun-May so it overlaps the 2006-2007 calendar year. No adjustments were made to deductions because although the pay dates changed the number of deductions did not.
It seemed odd to some employees but the company maintained it was legal so I was looking for an outside opinion.
Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[ecmst12]

Half of the first paycheck of 2008 will probably contain the missing week of pay you are looking for.

 

[moburkes]

Half of the first paycheck of 2008 will probably contain the missing week of pay you are looking for.

Yep. She's right. If you have access to the payroll calendar for the end of the year, the last week's pay period will probably not be paid until 2008, just like it was this year.