Crooked Boss Pays Wife $60k Annually With Company Money

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
May 20, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

Every workplace has its little secrets. No employee, including the CEO, can possibly know all the little nuggets of drama that are floating through any given office at all times. Some secrets are harder to keep than others, like if two employees are having a secret relationship. That kind of drama is at least a little bit fun, making it wholly unlike the tea one Redditor learned about his place of employment. 

A coworker recently told Reddit user u/masterpate that his boss's wife is on the payroll. She does not work at the company and makes $60,000 a year after taxes. To make matters worse, the boss has been firing several employees because he can't afford to pay them. The salaried employee only makes $30,000 a year himself! This setup may not be illegal, but it sure is wrong, and the people of r/antiwork voiced their opinions. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/antiwork u/masterpate. 14h Found out my bosses wife is paid $60k per year and she doesn't even work for the company. She doesn't even have a job at all.
    via u/masterpate
  • 02
    Font - Title says it all. I work for a mortgage company and have 2 main bosses. They're co-branch managers basically. We have maybe 15 people in my office. Or we HAD that many. Over the last several months they've laid off 4 of the most important people because they "couldn't afford to keep them on."
    via u/masterpate
  • 03
    Font - They also told me just last week I couldn't get a raise, and that at this point I should be happy to just have a job in this market. Today the other boss remarked to me that we wouldn't have had to fire the people if we didn't have to pay the other bosses wife 5k a month. I was taken aback.
    via u/masterpate
  • 04
    Font - The lady doesn't even work at our company. I make HALF as much as her. Her name comes up in the company directory though. Wtf. Her husband (the other boss) is crazy hardcore about ever taking time off or vacation days because "that's not what salaried employees do." Anyway I'm just done.
    via u/masterpate
  • 05
    Rectangle - Roboticharm. 14h 2 Awards "You need time off then you need to find someone to cover your shift." "What's your wifes number?" Reply 10.6k
    via u/Roboticharm
  • 06
    Font - masterpate OP. 14h I'm really contemplating how to bring it up because I can't I'm good faith let him berate me about being gone for 30 minutes again knowing what I know. 45k ↓
    via u/masterpate
  • 07
    Font - Imagine_TryingYT. 12h 1 Award Here's a lesson for you Any dirt you have on someone, you don't tell them. You might feel like you have the upper hand but you'll just give them time to cover their asses. Report it and don't say a word to your boss. G 47.1k
    via u/Imagine_TryingYT
  • 08
    Font - Everything GoodWas 8h Exactly this. Once you are getting fucked it will be too late. ... 42.2k
    via u/EverythingGoodWas
  • 09
    Font - masterpate OP. 5h OP here. I admittedly made this post last night as a means to vent because I was so incredibly mad about it all day. Likely my boss isn't doing anything illegal (knowing my luck vs his).
    via u/masterpate
  • 10
    Font - The only people worth "reporting" it to (if I wanted to just start some shit) would be the remaining 8 or so members of my team. Several of them were denied raises recently too even though they did pretty well the past several months in a slow market.
    via u/masterpate
  • 11
    Font - ALSO, just on Monday the same boss found out that a girl on our team got a part time, 2 hour per day job to make ends meet (not during our business hours) and he went apeshit and told her she has to quit that job if she wants to keep her current one. I would think she would be quite unhappy if she knew about the guy's wife.
    via u/masterpate
  • 12
    Font - Anyway if I told the team I would have to find out some way to do it anonymously, but it could always come back to me as my other boss knows he told me (and I'm pretty sure he could see how visibly agitated I was when he did). And the only way telling them would cause trouble would be if everyone quit. 1.3k
    via u/masterpate
  • 13
    Font - captainkrakin. 14h Worked for a company like this last year. The owner both his sons and all their wives "worked" at the company. The wives would come in once and a while. Play on the computer make smart ass remarks to everyone. Then leave I was talking with HR and happened to glance at the computer that had everyone's pay up on screen. All 3 of the wives were making 100k a year salary. They made me take a pay cut because they were on hard times. Complete bullshit. Reply 2.5k
    via u/captainkrakin
  • 14
    Font - whiskeylips88. 7h My sister worked for a real estate company. The boss's kid got the highest commission house every year and then fucked off the rest of the year. 4577
    via u/whiskeylips88
  • 15
    Rectangle - gbomber. 9h 1 Award If you are only making 30k/yr, you many not qualify as a "salaried employee". Depending on how many hours/week you work, you make be entitled to back pay for OT. Reply 311
    via u/gbomber
  • 16
    Font - Capable-Pepper-8608 . 6h This little gem of a comment! There are 4 to 5 tests that allow an employee to be salaried. OP, if you've consistently worked more than 40 hours a week, I'd take a look at the criteria. If you don't meet them, sue for back wages. 4 117 +
    via u/Capable-Pepper-8608
  • 17
    Font - hellish_relish89 • 14h . "Ghost Employees" are illegal as it's a form of fraud. Report his sorry ass. Have Fun! Reply 6.2k ...
    via u/hellish_relish89
  • 18
    Font - kittymiaooo888 - 14h This is a form of income splitting to make his income appear lower so he pays less taxes "What Is Income Splitting? Income splitting is a tax reduction strategy employed by families living in areas that are subject to bracketed tax regulations. The goal of using an income-splitting strategy is to reduce the family's gross tax level, at the expense of some family members paying higher taxes than they otherwise would.
    via u/kittymiaooo888
  • 19
    Font - Understanding Income Splitting An example of income splitting is a higher income family member transferring a portion of his or her income to a lower income family member through some legal means, such as hiring the lower income family member and deducting the cost of the labor as a legitimate business expense. Although the family still earns the same amount of money, the overall amount of tax it must pay is reduced." https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/ incomesplitting.asp#:~:text=Incom
    via u/kittymiaooo888
  • 20
    Rectangle - jezebella47 14h My attorney boss does this. Her husband is on the payroll and on the 401k plan. I figured it was shady. ... 289
    via u/jezebella47
  • 21
    Font - BigMoose9000 . 7h The crazy part is it's not remotely shady, it's completely legal and common. The tax code is written by those who pay to influence it. 4100
    via u/BigMoose9000

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salary boss antiwork toxic-manager toxic-workplace terrible-bosses bad jobs bosses toxic-management wife toxic-boss Horrible Bosses bad bosses money toxic-work-environment
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