Underpayment

“ Anticipating that there will inevitably be many occasions on which such a payment is more or less than the correct amount, Congress directed the Secretary to prescribe regulations outlining the procedure for remedying overpayments and underpayments.
In the vast majority of cases, these procedures are uncontroverted. We deal today only with a narrow category of disputed cases in which claimants assert rights designed to protect specially disadvantaged beneficiaries. Respondents, like the plaintiffs in Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 99 S.Ct. ”

“ The leverage of the creditor on the wage earner is enormous. The creditor tenders not only the original debt but the 'collection fees' incurred by his attorneys in the garnishment proceedings:
'The debtor whose wages are tied up by a writ of garnishment, and who is usually in need of money, is in no position to resist demands for collection fees. If the debt is small, the debtor will be under considerable pressure to pay the debt and collection charges in order to get his wages back. ”

“ Another view is that the underwriter impliedly undertakes to repay sums which the law may require the assured to pay towards averting losses which would, by the contract, fall upon the underwriter. Expenses voluntarily incurred by the assured with that object are expressly made repayable by the sue and labour clause of the policy. It might well be implied that payments compulsorily required from the assured by law for contributions to G.A., or as salvage for services by salvors, will be undertaken or repaid by the underwriter, the service being for his benefit. ”

“ Under the wage contract the employer, as the one best prepared to do it, takes the risk as to the future selling price of the product; the worker gets in a definite sum at once the market value of his services. Wage payment, therefore, is a form of insurance to the workingman; he gets something definite instead of taking chances he is ill prepared to take. Wage payment is a form of credit to the laborer whose labor is applied to producing the goods for customers distant in time and in place. ”

“ Payments supplement state unemployment benefits, and are only paid to employees eligible for state benefits. Payments are such that in combination with state benefits they give employee a certain percentage of his salary while laid off, which percentage depends on marital status, number of dependents and wage rate when laid off. Length of payment period depends on size of fund. Held, subject to income tax. ”

“ No officer in any branch of the public service, or any other person whose salary, pay, or emoluments are fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation, in any form whatever, for the disbursement of public money, or for any other service or duty whatever, unless the same is authorized by law, and the appropriation therefor explicitly states that it is for such additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation. ”

“ The exact and precise requirement is that all employers, whether natural or artificial persons, paying their employees in 'coupons, scrip, punchouts, store orders, or other evidences of indebtedness,' shall redeem the same at face value in money, if demanded by the employee or a bona fide holder on a regular pay day or at any time not less than thirty days from issuance (§ 1) , and that, if payment be not so made upon such demand, the owner may maintain a suit on such evidence of indebtedness, and have a money recovery for the face value thereof, in any court of competent jurisdiction (§ 2) . ”

“ Those that remain unpaid have been long pending. The beneficiaries thereunder have every reason to expect payment. These claims have been examined by the Court of Claims and their validity and amount determined. The United States ought to pay its debts. I recommend action by the Congress which will permit of the payment of these remaining claims.
THE WAGE EARNER
Two very important policies have been adopted by this country which, while extending their benefits also in other directions, have been of the utmost importance to the wage earners. ”

“ Officers being entitled to halfpay, such as choose to emigrate, should have provisions &c allowed them as above & quarterly notes with interest for three years full pay to commence & be computed from the time they begin their march, in full discharge of all such half pay. As I have already observed that it may be objected depreciations & other payments have been made good; but can a just debt be equitably discharged by certificates of very small comparative value, or depreciated paper money? Certainly no, consequently the States are still bound to make good the deficiency. ”

“ Well, if I have to go to prison and there work to pay the uttermost farthing, heaven nerve my arm so that I may meet and pay my obligations while I am in the flesh. I know that in relation to these matters some of us have been in the habit of considering, "Well, it is a brother to whom I owe this debt, and I can put him off, he will bear with me, and if he begins to make any particular demonstration towards collecting it, I will twine around him, and say, 'Bear with me a little, and I will pay you,'" when perhaps we have no real, firm and fixed determination to pay that debt at all. ”

“ To pay it voluntarily, to pay it at all except under protest, to pay it under any circumstances whatever but those of legal necessity, is to give Chancellors of the Exchequer that encouragement: much more to pay it in a conspicuous and ostentatious manner, at beat of drum, so to speak, as the gentleman settles his just accounts in A New Way to Pay Old Debts. ”

“ For instance in nearly every State there are what are called exemptions for a person who is the head of a family, which protect him even in the possession of a limited amount of property which his creditors cannot take away from him in payment of a debt. In most of the States laborers may hold the earnings of a certain period, for instance ninety days, for support of themselves and their families, which no one can touch, which no officers and no court can seize in payment of a debt. ”

“ If an employing unit defaults in payment or underpays the labor remuneration, the worker concerned may, in accordance with law, apply to the local people's court for an order for payment, and the people's court shall issue such an order in accordance with law. ”

“ Though the principle that compensation should be made, or relief given, is of universal application, the great diversity of conditions in the different sections of the United States may, in a wise application of the principle, call for differences between states in the amount and method of compensation, the periods in which payment shall be made, and the methods and means by which the funds shall be raised and distributed. ”

“ The employer of a workman holds his livret as a pledge. When he receives money in advance, the sum is written in his book, and it is a debt there chargeable as a deduction of not more than one fifth upon all future employment, until it is paid. The workman when travelling must have his livret viséd ”

“ We think also that if no such order is made when the receiver is appointed, and it appears in the progress of the cause that bonded interest has been paid, additional equipment provided, or lasting and valuable improvements made out of earnings which ought in equity to have been employed to keep down debts for labor, supplies, and the like, it is within the power of the court to use the income from the receivership to discharge obligations which, but for the diversion of funds, would have been paid in the ordinary course of business. ”

“ As regards old-age pay, a purchaser can, by adopting a slightly higher scale of payment, secure the return of his purchase money if at any time before the annuity falls in he repents of his bargain. Further, employers of labour and friendly societies can, on behalf of their workmen or members, make all the payments necessary to buy an insurance or annuity, and recoup themselves out of wages or members’ contributions. ”

“ When one has incurred a debt for wages due to workmen, clerks, or servants, that debt, within the limits of time and amount prescribed by the act, is entitled to priority of payment. The priority is attached to the debt, and not to the person of the creditor ”

“ There shall be no privileged class of creditors. Official salaries, pensions, bonds, and all other debts and obligations, public and private, shall be discharged in the legal-tender money of the United States, strictly according to the stipulations of the laws under which they were contracted. ”

“ In other words, it shows the right procedure to be that of recruiting through and with the co-operation of, and by the orders of, the natural authorities of the people under the supreme control of the Resident, combined with a form of payment which shall ensure the wage being placed in the wage-earner’s own hand, not in somebody else’s hand. ”

“ In that situation, the debt is not forgiven but is in fact satisfied in full through the debtor's performance of a "separate obligation"; discharge of the debt is merely the "medium of payment" for that performance, and must be treated as ordinary income for tax purposes. ”

“ This is what government has uniformly done in its proposals for raising money.—Were I to desire any sum to be lent me without interest, offering as a compensation or premium an annuity for a given term, or an advantageous contract; the proposal would not be accepted, unless the annuity or the contract was worth the sum to be lent; and I should make myself a debtor to the purchaser for the very thing which I sold to him.—The absurdity would be the same, if instead of borrowing without interest, I should in the same way borrow at a low interest. ”

“ The two words debt and payment always refer to money. Thus we say we pay a debt, and we perform a contract for the delivery of property, or to do work.
The constitutional provision in question requires that the stock subscribed 'be paid for at the time of such subscription.' Payment must be simultaneous with subscription. In this case, we contend that payment has not yet been made; but if even in this we were wrong, still it does not appear that the payment alleged in the declaration was made 'at the time' of the subscription. ”

“ No judge is required to pay a definite percentage of his salary, but all are commanded to return, as a part of 'gross income,' 'the compensation received as such' from the United States. From the 'gross income' various deductions and credits are allowed, as for interest paid, contributions or gifts made, personal exemptions varying with family relations, etc., and upon the net result assessment is made. ”

“ The custom of keeping the spare cash reserved for immediate use or against contingent demands, in the hands of a banker, and making all payments, except small ones, by orders on bankers, is in this country spreading to a continually larger portion of the public. If the person making the payment, and the person receiving it, keep their money with the same banker, the payment takes place without any intervention of money, by the mere transfer of its amount in the banker's books from the credit of the payer to that of the receiver. ”

“ Twenty per cent. additional pay is allowed by the joint resolution of the twenty-eighth of February, 1867, to certain persons or classes of persons therein described, who are employed in the civil service of the United States in this city, whose salaries, as fixed by law, do not exceed three thousand five hundred dollars per annum, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. ”

“ A statute requiring an employer to pay in money, to pay at prescribed and regular intervals, to pay the value of the services rendered, even to pay with fair relation to the extent of the benefit obtained from the service, would be understandable. ”

“ The words, 'pay proper,' we see no reason to think are to be construed differently from the word 'pay.' The term means compensation, pensation, which may properly be described or designated as 'pay,' as distinguished from allowances, commutations for rations, or other methods of compensation, not specifically described as pay. ”

“ But, sir, the punctuality of the payment has produced of late great inconveniencies; for there has been frequently a necessity of removing men from one ship to another; and it is the stated rule of the pay-office, to assign every man so removed his full pay. These men, when the government is no longer indebted to them, take the first opportunity of deserting the service, and engaging in business to which they are more inclined. ”

“ Section 77, sub. c (12) , which appears in the margin, [7] empowers the Commission to fix a maximum allowance 'out of the debtor's estate' for the expenses (including attorneys' fees) and services of 'trustees under indentures', for expenses incurred and services rendered 'in connection with the proceedings and plan'. It emphasizes that the expenses, the fees, and the services must be 'reasonable' and the allowance therefor 'reasonable'. The court is to make the allowance 'within such maximum limits as are fixed by the Commission'. ”

“ Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any debt as long as the debtor's goods and chattels suffice to pay the debt AND THE DEBTOR HIMSELF IS READY TO SATISFY THEREFORE. Nor shall the debtor's sureties be distrained as long as the debtor is able to pay the debt. If the debtor fails to pay, not having the means to pay, OR WILL NOT PAY ALTHOUGH ABLE TO PAY, then the sureties shall answer the debt. ”

“ Payments to employees 'involuntarily thrown out of employment because of lack of work in a certain industry.' Payments made out of a fund established for that purpose under an agreement between 'an association of manufacturers' and an 'employees' association' and maintained by deductions from the wages of those employees who ratify the agreement and by equivalent contributions from the employers. ”