Company messed up salary- unsure what to do

As this thread and the OP's predicament demonstrates, everything works fine .... until it doesn't.

@Anyahyacinth mentions a number of areas of employment where it is rare to recieve a contract before starting work, although an offer letter can be regarded as being legally binding unless it contains a clause such as "subject to satisfactory references" or something similar.

On the other hand, in private industry it would be unusual for anyone to start work, or even resign from their current job, without having seen and signed a contract of employment. I have seen it explained that for reasons of liability, the new recruit cannot so much as set foot on the premises (obviously they can enter the reception area on their first day) and certainly cannot touch any machinery, access any computer systems, speak to any customers or drive any company vehicle etc. unless and until they have signed the contract and have officially become an employee.

In teaching you have to resign by three specific dates in the year (e.g. 31st May to start a new school on 1st September). Interviews are very often in the week before these dates. If you waited until you had a contract to resign, you'd never leave or start a teaching job in England. It's just not how the education sector works.

Solicitors, NHS, Probation, Victim Support, Court Services, Local Authority, Charity Sector ....none sent contracts out before starting work...offer letters yes...contract no

I have never known of this for myself or anyone else, over several decades in the workforce. I’ve never resigned from a job until I have a signed contract and it would be a cold day in hell before I’d step foot in a workplace without a signed contract. Every contract I’ve had, or indeed offered to anyone over the years I’ve hired people has always had the commencement date in it. What you describe seems absolutely batshit as who would even accept an offer without reviewing the terms of the contract? What if you accept a job, start and then are given a contract with unsuitable terms? That makes no sense.

Technically an employer doesn’t have to give you a contract until day 1 but that is the latest. Always ensure you have your contract and have it signed before you resign from an old job and at least before you start work.

OP - your salary on your contract, which I understand is the one you assumed all along, is now your salary. If they say they’ve made a mistake you simply say no, this is what I agreed and was issues and signed. Stay firm. I say this as someone who has worked in HR for 20 years.

Everyone - you can check your salary and tax/NI very easily using these links.

https://listentotaxman.com

https://www.gov.uk/check-income-tax-current-year

OT

@SerendipityJane wrote But generally incompetence on that scale is rarely lonely.

I’ve not heard that phrase before. I like it.

In my first teaching job, the county council that was employing me acted like me questioning where my contract was (after starting work) was completely outrageous and they were just focusing on ensuring everyone got paid, didn't I know?

Well I’m ‘not being funny but’ I was responding to someone saying all Op had to do was take the salary and divide it by 12. And it’s not that simple because there are different take codes, some people have student loans, pension contributions etc. So dividing the annual salary by 12 doesn’t give you your take home wage. You need to look into it, use an online calculator, check the details, which is exactly what she did once she had time. So next time you decide to ‘not be funny’ why not read what I’m actually replying to first?

This is so weird to me. I have never once received a contract after starting. I had to read and sign before I was officially confirmed as a new hire (and background screening commenced.)

You get what’s in your contract. Don’t allow them to pay you any less than you signed.

It was mucking up the pensions that caused (and continues to cause) Birmingham Council a lifetime of woes.

They were forced to level up pay for women in the 1970s after the Equal Pay Act. Only they "forgot" to increase the pension contributions to match the upped pay..

Come the early 2000s when people started retiring, they realised their pension was tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds down.

As you'd expect the council was on the hook for the losses. Which had to be confirmed by the Supreme Court. And the missing money (which would hahe been accrued over decades) had to come out of the councils budget.

Whether this happened elsewhere I don't know. But generally incompetence on that scale is rarely lonely.

I mention this, as it wasn't picked up at the time, as it wasn't visible on payslips.

Yes - if you know what your pension contributions will be (assuming that’s in the contract) you can easily add these into calculators.

You could even run your own pen and paper calculation without a huge amount of difficult (although I do work in tax so my opinion on how easy that is might be skewed!).

ETA:
And it’s even easier to calculate on the top bit of your pay. I know for every £1 I earn now I keep 42.4p as 20% goes in pension, 45% in income tax and 2% in national insurance - it’s a more involved calculation to work out your whole tax bill though, or if the pay takes you across a tax band.

If the job was advertised in the TES, was it in a school? If so, are you in a union, because that should be your first port of call, not ACAS. And if you're not in a union, I'd advise you to join one, especially if it is in a school. I would also assume that the written contract you signed (which I assume you have a copy of) contains the terms of your employment, not anything just verbally said to you.

Not necessary at all.

The OP has a contract with the correct, higher salary, stated.

The job advertisement stated the higher salary, which is the same salary as stated in the contract. Usually the offer letter would also include details of the salary - the OP has not mentioned if this was the case.

I’ve never known receiving a contract until some time in post…an offer letter yes but a contract always given after joining ..part of induction

Do you have any sort of email confirmation from when you were offered the job with the salary on it ? No way would I be accepting a lower salary but having something as proof of what you were offered would be helpful

I don't think there's an issue here. You signed a contract saying your salary would be £x.

When you get your first payslip you will be able to see if you've been paid the right amount.

If you aren't, you can go back to HR and say my contract says my salary is £x, why have I been paid £y.

Same. Even is this gets sorted I would be looking for a new job. They are dodgy and disorganised

@saveforthat, your contributions to this thread are highly uninformed and unhelpful.

Your contract is what they have to pay regardless. I hope you kept a copy. I would insist that they stuck to the contract. You might need union advice

I think people come onto threads to just lash out. It's like they are so unhappy in their own lives and need to project it into the OP. It's sad really :(

Is there a need to be so arsey??

See this for the bad omen that this is. I would not want to work in such a school.

Huge red flag