AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Officials say a clerical error resulted in a $1.4 million payout mistake for the City of Austin this month, with approximately 675 employees receiving double their usual pay.
The city says the error affecting paychecks on March 13, after a blank data field on a spreadsheet triggered a system-wide glitch.
The issue occurred during a routine update to job descriptions within Workday, the city’s HR and payroll management software. Because a "non-required" field was left empty, the system overrode overtime exemption data.
That error caused the software to process each week of the pay period independently, effectively doubling the checks for affected staff.
According to the city, employees were notified of the error on March 12, just before the funds were disbursed. The city is currently establishing a repayment plan to allow employees to return the excess funds over an extended period.
