Two fired after Michigan man receives $1.6 million salary in major payroll slip-up

A county employee quickly reported and returned a mistaken seven-figure payment, but the payroll error still led to two staff being fired.

A Wayne County employee briefly became a millionaire after receiving a $1.6 million paycheck in May due to a payroll mistake. The error, caused by human input, was not caught by the county's safeguards, reported WXYZ Channel 7.

A payroll error made a Wayne County employee a millionaire by accident.(Pexels)

The long-time employee, who has worked for the county in Michigan for over 20 years, noticed the huge deposit and quickly reported it to her supervisor the next day.

According to WXYZ Channel 7, the error happened when a supervisor was updating pay details after the employee got a raise. Instead of entering the correct hourly rate, the employee ID number was typed in by mistake, triggering the huge payment.

Despite the employee’s honesty, the incident has led to serious consequences. Two employees were fired, and a third was suspended, as officials said the mistake should have been stopped by multiple checks in the system.

Staff say lack of training led to a million-dollar mistake:

 

County Executive Warren Evans said, “No excuses for it, that kind of thing can’t happen. But it almost did.”

This is not the first issue with Wayne County’s new payroll system, which was introduced last year using software from Oracle. In August, hundreds of sheriff’s staff were underpaid- some by nearly their full wages.

Employees say many staff are still not fully trained on the new system, and that’s part of the reason errors like this keep happening.

County Commission Chairwoman Alisha Bell has called for a full review of past payments, saying small mistakes may have gone unnoticed.

“If it was $100 or $200, no one might notice. But a million dollars? That stands out,” she said.

The county now faces pressure to improve its payroll system and staff training to avoid more costly errors in the future.