So I received payroll today, and one colleague – who isn’t even working this month – is to receive the strange salary of –$937.86.
Yes, that is minus nine hundred thirty-seven dollars.
I called the accountant who prepared the payroll and asked him what this meant.
“Yes, that’s strange,” he said. “What do you think it means?”
It could be any of a number of different things.
The bookkeeper might have given the the wrong amount previously and was told to correct it. It might be that it was entered as a negative by mistake. They might have been having their withholding amounts changed and an extra number was put in by mistake. There could be a garnishment on their wages that was incorrectly done.
There are several different things. That being said it is likely it was a mistake on the person doing payroll’s part. These things happen. Its good that they caught it. Your colleague just needs to get ahold of the accounting department and inquire about it. I highly suspect the person who made the mistake has no idea one was even made.
Post Note : I reread the post, and it mentioned they didn’t work that month. It’s also possible that there is an auto deduction in place for stuff like IRA contributions, Health Insurance, etc. If their payroll was triggered by accident even if no hours are added, its possible for the balance to still show up as negatives. Their payroll might have been triggered along side everyone else’s, payroll and without any hours added only had deductions listed, thus giving him a negative payroll.
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I agree that there can be all sorts of reasons but what disturbs me is that the person who is supposed to be in charge has absolutely no idea what’s happening and how to remedy it.
We had two amazing accountants, real miracle workers. They were both headhunted by private companies that pay much better than the pittance we offer and don’t demand that one person does the work of five people because the other 4 were laid off. Austerity is stupid, it doesn’t work. But we are congenitally unable to learn this lesson.
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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