Underpayment
Included on this page:
An underpayment has occurred when an Employee receives less than their
correct payroll salary.
Examples include:
- Hours turned in after Payroll cutoff.
- OPUS changes made after Payroll cutoff.
- Employee receives a retroactive payroll increase.
- If you believe you have been underpaid, review your salary history
with your Payroll Coordinator. If there has been an underpayment, it is
now your Payroll Coordinator's responsibility to communicate this to the
Payroll Office.
- Review your payment options with your Payroll Coordinator. There
are two methods for repayment: a Retropayment and Emergency Check.
- A retropayment is missing funds for a prior payperiod that
are
included on the next available payday.
- Emergency Checks are written only in emergency situations.
Emergency Checks are usually available 1-2 business days after all
necessary documentation has been received by the Payroll Office.
- Discuss your payment option with your payroll coordinator.
- Review your Check Registers; check all information in OPUS for
accuracy.
- When you think you have discovered an underpayment, check the
following information for accuracy:
- Check Register Report.
- Check history in Employee Overview.
- Funding history in Employee Overview.
- If there is an underpayment, make the appropriate change in OPUS.
- If the underpayment involves missing exception or positive hours,
please print out the ETR or PTR Reports screen, write in the correct
hours, include appropriate signatures and fax (3-8137) the form to the
Payroll Office.
- If the underpayment involves a change in OPUS, please make the
change. Once you have received the Post-Entry Review Message (PERM),
forward the email to payme@u.washington.edu,
with a brief description of
the expected payment in the email and change the Subject line to read:
Retropayment, Unit ### (where "###" is your PUC).
- When the Employee in question has not been paid for the current
pay period.
- If there is a gross underpayment. A gross underpayment is defined
as follows: The Employee is missing more than 15% of their paycheck; if
the Employee is a student (GSA or otherwise) any amount greater than $75
will be considered (as situation warrants).
- Gross-to-Net Refunds; when the Employee is over-deducted on
certain specific deductions, they will be paid back as soon as possible in
an Emergency Check.
- In an "Emergency Situation" defined as the following: Employee
will be evicted, unable to pay medical bills, unable to support their
family, or similar situations. These situations will be qualified on a
case-by-case basis.
- An Emergency check cannot be processed for more than 12
pay periods at a time in a given pay cycle. If the amount owed to an
employee exceeds 12 pay periods, additional checks/retroactive adjustments
will be processed during future pay cycles.
- PERM or;
- ETR or PTR online Reports screen, signed by both you and your
approver.
- Always check the Payroll Schedule
and be sure to turn in
retroactive requests as early as possible.
- Pay attention to your Check Registers.
- Always check your PERMs for accuracy.
- Make sure departmental employees are aware of when timesheets are
due.
- Who do I need to contact if there is a problem with my
pay?
-
You need to contact your department's Payroll Coordinator. The
Payroll
Coordinator has access to employee data and authorization to request
payment from the Payroll Office.
- Can my underpayment be direct deposited?
- Emergency checks can not be direct deposited.
- Retropayments are paid on the next available payday and will be
direct deposited for those with an active direct deposit set up.
