is my boss required to give me retroactive active pay from the date my review was supposed to be?

Question

i was supposed to have my review and raise done in may and its now september and he is just getting around to it.
i was told by a friend that he is required by law to pay back from the date my review was supposed to be. im in MA if that helps

i was just curious because i was told in passing that it was law.
in my handbook it does say "review yearly for raise"
i didnt mean to offend or sound greedy or anything i was just curious

Answer 1

I agree with what everyone else said. While many companies do make raises retroactive to a specific day, they are not required by law to. It is a benefit, a perk. Many companies will put into writing their raise/review policies. Check your employee handbook.
In my personal experience large corporations have set days that raises are put into effect, despite the actual day of the review, for accounting purposes. Most small companies I have worked for make it for the first pay period after the review.
But again, check your employee handbook.

Answer 2

You will have to check on the companies rules on that, even though you are due the review in May and it gets done in September, you just might start getting paid from the September date of the review.Retroactive pay may not be authorized.You are also assuming that you will actually get a raise,that is not necessarily true, you could get the review and not a raise. I hope you get the raise but companies can really mess you up, they just showed you just how important you are, making you wait for several months after your due review to get around to it, just a thought..

Answer 3

Your friend is very wrong. Your employer is not legally required to give you a raise at all if he/she so chooses. Furthermore, you review is nothing more that a report card on your performance and is not tied to raise. Most companies do give merit raises based on your review, but the are two seperate things.

Answer 4

I doubt it - my company used to give raises on Jan 1, but we were bought by another company and the bosses didn't get all the reviews done until March - we got raises in March - NO retro pay. They are not even required to give you a raise period.

Answer 5

Unless you have an explicit employment contract that states so any raise will be effective whenever the boss says it is.

Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about. You have no legal entitlement to a raise nor do they have to give you one at any specific point in time.

Answer 6

It's not law.... A company is under no obligation to give you a raise in the first place.

Answer 7

I see so much of this here. "My friend told me."
What are your friend's qualifications for making such a statement???Did you ask him??