A) Under Washington law, you may, in most circumstances, recoup an overpayment of wages. There are some qualifying conditions that apply. First, the overpayment must be inadvertent and infrequent (meaning it was not on purpose and has not occurred on a regular basis). Second, you as the employer have 90 days from the first overpayment to detect it and implement a repayment plan with the employee. Third, you must provide the employee with advance written notice of the overpayment prior to making the adjustment.

I have had employers ask if they can retroactively change an employee’s pay after hiring them, recouping the overpayment if they decide the employee’s quality of work is substandard. The answer is no. Overpayment of wages cannot concern the quality of an employee’s work. What it may concern is payment for more than the agreed upon wage rate, or payment for more hours than actually worked.

Obviously no one likes to have their paycheck deducted, so this unfortunate surprise could result in some hard feelings on your employee’s part. It’s a good idea to work out a repayment plan with your employee that lessens the impact on their take-home pay. Also, in the future, you might consider utilizing written job offer letters when hiring new employees. The letter would spell out the employee’s wage, hours, title, terms of employment, benefits, etc. In a situation such as this, there would be no confusion as to what the correct wage should have been.

Q) I am a very small employer and I am wondering what benefits I should try to provide in order to attract employees?

A) As the unemployment rate drops, it will become harder for all of us to attract quality employees; therefore, benefits will become an even more important part of the equation. As a small business owner myself, I know how costly it is to provide benefits, but there are some creative ways to do it that make it more affordable.

When employees say they need benefits, most of the time they are talking about medical insurance. You can still find reasonably priced policies for small businesses through our local Chambers of Commerce or other associations, such as the Homebuilders Association.

We utilize a local broker and have a great small business option through KPS for our employees. Additionally, you can add a flexible spending plan, which allows your employees to put away money pre-taxed for medical and/or childcare expenses. You will probably find that your company’s own tax savings will offset the administration costs. Now you’re starting to build a pretty nice medical benefits program.

Another benefit employees need is paid time off. It is in your best interests that your employees stay home when sick — and they will be more likely to do so if they are paid. It is also best for everyone if your employees have some vacation time during the year to relax and rejuvenate. In our company, we roll it all together and give our employees a paid time off account to draw from throughout the year. If you can throw in some of the basic holidays paid, then you’ll have a nice package.

I recommend to my small business clients that they add some creative low-cost benefits. Some proven examples:

• Honor an employee of the quarter.
• Celebrate employee birthdays.
• Bring in pizza on a Friday when folks are working hard, or bring in your barbecue and grill burgers.
• Offer flexible working schedules if you can, which makes your company a family-friendly environment.
• Let employees bring their dogs to work if that fits your environment.
• Give employees the afternoon off as a bonus for accomplishing a project.

The idea is to be creative. As a small business, you can do something different and fun for your employee. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Use your imagination and inspire and retain your employees.

Because it is very expensive to recruit and train new employees, it is much more cost effective to retain the good employees that you already have. When you are weighing the expense of adding benefits, consider what it costs your company to handle the high turnover that results when employees leave you due to the lack of benefits.