Results 1 to 6 of 6

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    Posts
    13

    Default Is a Promised Salary Enforceable in Court if the Employer Later Pays a Lower Amount

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: South Carolina.

    My General Manager was recently promoted to General Manager from Assistant. They verbally promised her an agreed upon wage for her to take the position and she doesn't feel like they are paying her the agreed upon wage (She doesn't know for sure because the website is down that holds our paystub information). Will a verbally discussed wage hold up in court if they decide not to pay her the full amount?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    18,340

    Default Re: Verbally Agreed Upon Salary Will Hold Up in Court

    Since your are not your General Manager you have no idea of the extent of the discussions or promises that were made.

    So, unless your General Manager wants to come here and tell her own story all you'll get is a guess.

    Probably not.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Posts
    8,238

    Default Re: Verbally Agreed Upon Salary Will Hold Up in Court

    Quote Quoting J_Nic
    View Post
    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: South Carolina.
    Will a verbally discussed wage hold up in court if they decide not to pay her the full amount?
    Yes, assuming she can convince the court of what the agreement was. Note that the employer may change the pay, however, for future work to be performed but in SC if the employer has more than 5 employees the employer must notify the employee of that change in writing at least one week before it takes effect.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    Posts
    13

    Default Re: Verbally Agreed Upon Salary Will Hold Up in Court

    Quote Quoting Taxing Matters
    View Post
    Yes, assuming she can convince the court of what the agreement was. Note that the employer may change the pay, however, for future work to be performed but in SC if the employer has more than 5 employees the employer must notify the employee of that change in writing at least one week before it takes effect.
    I'm fairly certain she could convince the court of the verbal agreement. She simply asked for the same salary as our previous GM. It's nothing huge or unbelievable. What I'm worried about now is what happens after she wins? Is she all of a sudden out of a job? Can she sue for enough to cover the time it would take to look for a new position elsewhere?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Verbally Agreed Upon Salary Will Hold Up in Court

    You're getting way ahead of yourself. First of all, it isn't even certain that the wage has been lowered. Secondly, she hasn't even filed a lawsuit, let alone won it, and a lawsuit is not necessarily her best or only option even assuming she's not being paid according to a verbal agreement. The EL crystal ball hasn't come back from the cleaners yet, so we don't have any way of knowing if she will lose her job. Suing for wages while she looks for a new job would be a separate lawsuit since she can't sue for something that hasn't happened yet and she wouldn't have lost her job (or had any way of gauging how long it would take to find a new one) during the initial one. If an initial suit happens, and if she wins, and if she is then fired. None of which has happened yet.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Posts
    8,238

    Default Re: Verbally Agreed Upon Salary Will Hold Up in Court

    Quote Quoting J_Nic
    View Post
    I'm fairly certain she could convince the court of the verbal agreement.
    Certain based on what, exactly? It was a verbal agreement. Can she prove what was said other than by her own testimony? What if her boss (or whomever she made the agreement with) has a different recollection of the conversation and says the agreement was something else? Could she prove that her version was the right one? In a lawsuit she is the one who must prove her case to the court that it is more likely than not that her version of the facts is the correct one. If it just comes down to resolving a difference between what each of them recalls about what was said then she’ll have to hope she makes a much more convincing witness than her boss. You are evidently in her corner, so you would be biased in her favor, thus it doesn’t surprise me that you might be confident of her case. But very few court cases are truly guaranteed wins. So she ought not count on winning before the court renders its judgment on it.

    Quote Quoting J_Nic
    View Post
    What I'm worried about now is what happens after she wins? Is she all of a sudden out of a job? Can she sue for enough to cover the time it would take to look for a new position elsewhere?
    She would be wise to first try to reach an amicable resolution of this with her superiors before suing over it. If she sues and wins she can pursue collection of what the court says she is owed. But the employer may still reduce her pay going forward and the employer may also fire her since very likely she is an at will employee and thus the employer does not need a good reason to fire her. If she is fired she may file for unemployment while she looks for a new job. But she won’t win any wrongful termination lawsuit unless the reason for termination was among the relatively few reasons that the law prohibits. The prohibited reasons include firing her because:
    • of her race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, or genetic test information under federal law (some states/localities add a few more categories like sexual orientation);
    • she makes certain kinds of reports about the employer to the government or in limited circumstances to specified persons in the employing company itself (known as whistle-blower protection laws);
    • she participates in union organizing activities;
    • she uses a right or benefit the law guarantees her (e.g. using leave under FMLA);
    • she filed a bankruptcy petition;
    • her pay was garnished by a single creditor; and
    • she took time off work to attend jury duty (in most states).

    The exact list of prohibited reasons will vary by state. She is not protected under federal law for being fired over a pay dispute unless the pay dispute was over payment of minimum wage or overtime. So unless South Carolina law makes it illegal for the employer to fire an employee over a lawsuit concerning pay she runs the risk that she may have no recourse if the employer is upset over the lawsuit and fires her for it.

    1. Sponsored Links
       

Similar Threads

  1. Modification of Support: Modifying Child Support After Taking a Job With a Lower Salary
    By Trickledown in forum Child Custody, Support and Visitation
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 04-16-2014, 07:39 PM
  2. Business Disputes: Proving the Amount Promised for Work Performed
    By morkovka in forum Business Law
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 11-28-2010, 05:53 AM
  3. Compensation and Overtime: Employer Promised Salary and Insurance But Has Not Followed Through
    By CrisandNate in forum Employment and Labor
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 07-28-2009, 04:23 AM
  4. Compensation and Overtime: Wages Will Be Lower Than Was Promised at Time of Hire
    By rnky2006 in forum Employment and Labor
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 10-02-2008, 06:09 PM
  5. No Job - How to lower amount
    By sluna77 in forum Child Custody, Support and Visitation
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 11-03-2005, 07:18 AM
 
 
Sponsored Links

Legal Help, Information and Resources