Recently my wife got a letter in the mail saying that her employer (The Federal Goverment) had erroneously issued her and been paying her at a higher rate than they should have been (GS step 9-2 rather than 9-1) for the past 5 months. Now they want to be repaid for all the excess they paid her during that time. My question is this - if such errors are clearly incompetence and the fault of the employer, as they were in this case, why does the employer even claim a right to repayment? Shouldn't they swollow the cost and learn to be more accurate in the future?

Many thanks

P.S. we live in VA but she works in DC, so I placed this in the DC area.

So if you were writing a check to a department store or a utility, and you made a mistake and wrote the check for the wrong amount, you'd be okay with them keeping the extra money and not issuing you a credit or refund? After all, it was your mistake, and will teach you to be more careful in the future.

If I was given the wrong amount to pay and overpaid that is one thing, and I would ask for a refund. However, if I wrote a check erroneously and the fault was clearly on my end, I would not expect a refund, no.

But, you WOULD expect a credit on your bill, right?

Irrespective of what YOU would expect, the employer has every right to demand repayment of a "mistake".

If you would not except a refund or credit when you overpay through your own fault, you are very much in the minority.

Be that as it may, however, for whatever reason the law has decided to allow employers to ask for repayment. If you want to know why they've made that decision, you'll need to ask your legislators.

And, it comes to mind to ask why, over the course of five months, your wife never bothered to mention that she was being overpaid?

Actually she didn't realize she was getting over paid. They told her she was getting a promotion to a series 9. She had been a series 7. So when they started paying her at 9-2 rather than 9-1 she assumed that they had included the annual COLA increase into the raise. She had been a 7-1 so she thought it normal for people to increase a grade and a step to account for time served in addition to the promotion. No one ever told her any differently and she never received in writing exactly what series-step combination she was reaching. Nevertheless, we are upset by the fact that this can be overlooked for so long and now they can request repayment. I wouldn't ask for repayment from a waiter I over tipped a month ago.

You have the right to be upset; they have the right to request repayment.

I might even agree with you that if it were me, I'd overlook it. But what I would do and what you would do is irrelevant; this employer has chosen not to overlook it and legally they are within their rights.