Can Employer Raise pay Without Consent

[Joeradd]

Hi All,

I was given notice that i would receive a meager pay increase literally 1 day before pay day, having worked hard at this company for a number of years i didnt want to accept this tiny increase without at least sitting down with the HR dept. and arguing my worth with them.

Now i instructed the HR/Payroll that i had not yet accepted the raise and did not want to see it in my pay check.

Obviously as it was 1 day to pay day they couldn't do anything.

So my conundrum is that my contract was changed without my consent and that im worried my Tax and Prsi may be affected for this month if i were to look for a refund at some point.

They said to me today they can arrange to have my pay corrected next month but i see this as an easier task for them rather than doing it correctly and changing it now, Would there be any issues with it being amended next month?

Best Regards,

 

[Brendan Burgess]

No.

Tax is charged in such a way that the more you earn gross, the more you earn net. If you get €100 extra which brings you into the 41% rate, it won't affect the money below that in the 20% band.

I think that there might be a very narrow band where the increase brings you into a higher band fro PRSI or USC and so you might lose out by a tiny amount, but unless you are sure you are in this band I would not worry about it. It would be very odd to turn down a pay increase and I think it would reflect badly on you in that you would be perceived as being difficult for the sake of being difficult.

In general, if someone is not happy with the level of their increase, they say so and any further increase they negotiate is backdated.

Brendan

 

[Joeradd]

Just to counter your assumption, i turned it down mainly because the company i work for have a strict one review per year rule, if i were to accept the amount i am not happy with without first having the chance to discuss my worth i would not be able to have it reviewed again this year.

Also last year (im sure tax rules have changed) i worked 6-8 hours overtime one month and because i was on the cusp if a new PRSI band i did in fact come out lower paid that month over my actual monthly wage. Prompted by this i worked out i needed a pay increase much more substantial than what has been offered or i would in fact be making less money.

So please don't jump to conclusions about me,

Also is the company not being difficult by waiting till the 11th hour to inform me of it and not sitting me down to discuss first?

EDIT: Additional Info

 

[onq]

I don't think anyone is jumping to conclusions about you.
Brendan looked at the issue in the round and mentioned the slim possibility that you could be bumped into a higher PRSI band and this lose money overall.

"I think that there might be a very narrow band where the increase brings you into a higher band fro PRSI or USC and so you might lose out by a tiny amount, but unless you are sure you are in this band I would not worry about it."

I don't think you are being difficult per se, just minding your income stream, but you talked all around this issue in your first post and Brendan went to the heart of it.
I suggest that you write to Accounts explaining your dilemma and asking them had it been their intent to reward a company employee with a pay increase that meant he had less in his pay packet afterward.

If there are intermediate levels within the company that you should use to move this forward - such as line managers or departments heads - then you should do so, but be frank about your concerns.
Management appreciates directness from employees, not cleverness per se. You'll find that a succinct parsing of your concerns will save everyone time and energy and result in a speedy resolution.
This may not be a matter that normally dealt with by the HR people in your firm and if they aren't numerate you may have to spell out your tax situation in some detail to get them to see the point.

I have to express my sympathy with you - while being one of the 85% lucky enough to both have a job AND be rewarded by your employer for working hard, you're getting less pay in your salary/wage packet.
Make sure this isn't a cunning plot by an unscrupulous employer to simply pay employees less over a short time period and seek a full accounting of the decision making process that resulted in this disincentive being applied.

Consider posting the result to AAM for others to learn from.

ONQ.