So my husband joined this company in October last year which is a subsidiary of a reasonably famous company in his field. During salary negotiation HR (parent company) told him his expected salary was a bit out of their range, but they have discussed with the CEO and could counter offer 20k less (per year) which was the same as what he was getting at his previous company. My husband was really interested in the job so he accepted the offer.
However when the contract arrived, 基本給+手当 ×12 was actually 1M short of what was promised. When he called up HR about this he was told it would be paid in bonus, 500k twice. *AND* he was specifically told to keep this arrangement a secret to his colleagues in the subsidiary, because they don’t usually get bonuses of more than 100k. I really thought he should get it in writing at the time, but he thought, maybe naively, verbal promises were promises especially coming from HR in large companies.
Fast forward to bonus paid day, he checked his bank account and it turned out he was paid not 500k, but 50k in summer. He is super bummed about this, obviously. I kind of thought it might happen but I didn’t think it would be so little. Also this means that his annual salary is down about 1M which… sucks. He has contacted HR to ask about it, and is now considering quitting on the spot even though he loves the job.
I feel bad for him so I don’t really want to focus on what he should’ve could’ve done. I’m wondering if this has happened to anyone? Is it worth the effort of going to the labour dept, or would he just be told not to be stupid next time ?
11 comments
Always get it in writing.
And keep in mind that he needs to give at least two weeks notice.
That’s extremely shitty. And yeah those were some huge red flags during the negotiation process. Unfortunately at this point, going the legal route is going to be an uphill battle. In your favor: verbal contracts are legally binding. Against you: hard to prove, also bonuses are generally considered discretionary in the first place.
If it were me, I would start contacting senior leadership at the parent company, up to the CEO if necessary, to inform them that their HR is lying. Keep it professional and fact-based, and express disappointment rather than anger. If the company has an ethical hotline include that as well. Shady stuff like this is almost always due to a rogue employee/team. If nothing pans out from that, I still wouldn’t quit but I would essentially stop working and focus all my energies on finding a new job. Like, literally show up to work and browse job ads lol.
Always get the offer in writing before jumping ship, and never believe any promises outside what is written. And always remember that bonuses and allowances (手当) are NOT base wage and can be adjusted at whim.
> Is it worth the effort of going to the labour dept, or would he just be told not to be stupid next time ?
Even if they recognised it, a bonus is not protected wage, and can be adjusted at the whim of the company.
Did your husband sign a employment contract at the beginning? What the contract says is what the company promises・・?
Usually when you first join the company, the first bonus payment might be calculated based on how long you are with the company. So, there is a possibility that the 50k is only for the first bonus payment. You should check with HR to see if that’s the case or not.
What did HR said when he contacted them after receiving the bonus? Did HR gives any explanation about it?
In any case, the situation really sucks for your husband. If your husband still want to work there, then escalating this to HR director and above would be the first step. But if your husband really wants to quite, then go ahead contact the labor dept, employment lawyer and all, and get that money back. (But you would be burning the bridge, and you might not get the full 100% money, so weight the risk)
His offer letter and contract should lay out his comp. If it isn’t on those docs, there isn’t much you can do. I once negotiated work from home a couple of days a week with an MD (my manager) and when he left, the new MD came in and immediately told me it was against policy in a room with two HR staff as witness. They didn’t give a toss about anything verbal. Weren’t even nice/understanding of my verbal agreement. I was super pissed, heaved a bit, and then sucked it up because I have a family and get paid well.
Best he can do is explain calmly and ask for an increase in his next cycle. Or jump to another company.
– Ask for an explanation from HR. There may be some simple misunderstanding
– Don’t quit on the spot. Go job searching first to secure the next opportunity
– Get things in writing
This is when you look for a new job and quit. Preferably without notice.
As the old joke goes, “Verbal contracts are worth the paper they’re written on.” As others have noted, always get it in writing, and wherever possible create a paper trail.
That being said, this may well be a misunderstanding. Large companies are large, and you mentioned that normally the bonus is less than 100k. It may well be that someone completely unrelated to the salary negotiations and in a different department in HR (such as payroll) saw the 500k bonus and thought, “Whoops! Someone hit zero one too many times!”, and just “fixed” the mistake.
Before going through all the headaches of job hunting it may be worthwhile getting in touch with the person in HR that they negotiated with during the hiring phase. Something like this (sent to their personal email address with no CC or BCC at this stage so it stays “secret”:
“Dear X-san,
Do you remember during salary negotiations you consulted with CEO-san and agreed that the salary difference was going to be paid in 2 x 500,000 bonuses so that my total annual salary came out to X?
It appears that there has been a miscommunication or mistake somewhere and instead I was paid a bonus of 50,000. I can see how on a computer screen it might be possible to mix up 500,000 and 50,000, especially since (as you mentioned during negotiations) normally bonuses are 100,000 or less. Could you please get in touch with the department responsible and just tell them that this is an exceptional case that was agreed during salary negotiations?
Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your hard work.”
Then wait for the response. You’ll quickly find out if this was a genuine error, or if the person negotiating never had any intention of paying the promised bonus. You’ve also given them a polite and professional heads-up that they were just an intermediary between you and the CEO, and that the actual agreement here was between you and the CEO.
… the implications should be obvious – that your next email is going to be to the CEO to “clear up this confusion”.
Now a note here, if the person tries to call or schedule a meeting then **record the call or meeting**. This is a red flag that this was deliberte.
A fairly standard tactic in these situations is for the individual involved to “confess” their “error” and ask for forgiveness, normally with lots of apologies. This is, of course, complete nonsense – they want to get the career boost of having hired the foreigner for a lot less than their market value, and then make the problem go away with an apology. State clearly in the meeting that you understand that mistakes happen, but it is now on them to fix the mistake. Give then a week or so, and then email them a reminder. If they don’t fix it then take the complaint to the CEO.
This is where things may turn nasty. The HR person’s career is now on the line. They’ll straight-up lie to the CEO, hiding behind the “saving the company from embarassment” line out of Japanese “good manners”. Let them. Don’t even show that you have the recording until they’ve dug themselves a nice and deep hole. Then play the recording for the CEO where they admit their “error”. At this point your take should be that you understand that an error was made, and that all you’re asking is that the error be fixed, and that this HR person’s behaviour is causing the company embarassment.
The CEO should recognise that they’ve now got a massive legal problem. The agreement is now documented and a trail of evidence has been created. The HR person will get chewed out, your husband will get their money, and … well, he should probably start job hunting because the CEO will now have it out for them. However the HR guy’s career is also over. This is mutually assured destruction, but at least it’ll stop this guy from profiting from this sort of behaviour in the future.
I sincerely hope this is a simple error, confusing 50,000 for 500,000, but prepare for both possibilities.
By the way, HR lying to get people in the company seems pretty common. Usually the excuse is “but your direct manager has the last word” or “the rules says we can’t”
My partner got lied about work from home. She was told she would be 90% wfh, but since her manager said no the HR said “sucks to be you”. Even the director said “I empathize but if your direct manager says so…”. All other teams get wfh but hers, she is looking for a job now.
Yesterday in complaint thread, someone got in writing that she could take a reserved 2 weeks vacation after joining as condition only to be told “1st year employees can only take 1 week, it’s the rule”
Anyway, best to look for new job while negotiating with HR to actually get the promised money. I hope your husband can his dues