Hello all
So backstory first. I worked full time at a company starting in July of 2020. All is going well. I then start doing some consulting work on the side to make ends meet, and the consulting gig offers me full time with a pay raise from my regular job. I accept and put in my notice at my current position.
They go ballistic and try to keep me any way they can (outside of a pay raise, can't be too ridiculous!) And I agree to work for them part time (8 hours a week) while beginning my consulting job.
Fast forward to January of this year. My spouse needs to see about a million different doctors, and being a consulting contractor, I do need have benefits. So we make the difficult decision for me to go back to my original job full time, as they offer medical and dental. They give me a $2/hr pay raise, and my benefits are set to begin 30 days after my full time start date (which ended up being May 1st).
May 1st rolls around. No cards, no online access to my medical benefits account. I then email HR again. Takes them a few days to get back to me and they say it should be good to go. Great, now my spouse can make their doctor's appointments.
We get a paycheck preview on the Wednesday before our Friday payday. I look at my paystub yesterday. And it is significantly lower than it should be. Almost $600 lower. I immediately bring it to my boss, who emails HR (no one in my building handles payroll, it all goes through our corporate office).
HR then sends me a lengthy email stating that it is backpay for the benefits that began ON MY ORIGINAL START DATE. Um, excuse me? I did not have access to these benefits. Why am I being charged for them? And why are the sneakily trying g to take it out of my paycheck and not notifying me first? It all seems super shifty to me.
I have called and emailed HR with no response. I really don't know what to do, as I am the sole breadwinner for our family of 4, and we have a super tight budget as it is. I know for a fact I shouldn't have to pay this. But what can I do/say to get them to give me my money back?
Please help!