Software engineer denied salary by company’s new AI payroll after being flagged as ‘irregular’

Payday is the one day everyone looks forward to, so what if AI suddenly put your paycheck on hold? On November 4, a Redditor (u/devbydaydreamer) shared a situation about their company's new AI payroll bot, and it has readers fuming. At a time of great economic despair, the Reddit user is suspended in a state of anxiety over what this technological nightmare will claim next.

The author, who works as a junior software engineer at a mid-sized startup, revealed that their company had kick-started an AI model called 'Eloquent AI,' which now processes payroll. "They keep talking about how automation is going to make everything more efficient," the author wrote. On the day they were supposed to receive their paycheck, the employee noticed that their salary had not been credited to their account. Puzzled over the unusual situation, they decided to drop by their office and check with HR. It was probably just a technical error or delay, one would imagine. However, HR's response shocked the employee. 

"Apparently, the [AI] system decided my timecard was ‘irregular’ and paused my payment because it thought I wasn't active enough. I logged off a bit earlier one day last week for a dentist appointment, so maybe that was my great sin." HR also mentioned that the 'error' wasn't necessarily a bug in the system but a part of the model's "learning process." The author wrote, "They told me it should self-correct next pay cycle. So now I'm sitting here debugging code while worrying if I'll be able to afford my lunches until this is fixed." What was most worrying were the four weeks it would take before their next paycheck may or may not arrive.

Although the employee revealed that her boyfriend had handled this month's house rent, she was worried about what would happen next month. "I'm genuinely starting to wonder if I should quit before the AI decides to optimize me out of a job completely," she added. With the onset of AI in payroll management, a 2025 research by Open Ledger highlighted the demerits of its usage. The paper warns that AI systems trained on payroll data can unintentionally reinforce existing inequalities, such as gender or racial pay gaps, since algorithms may replicate patterns formed in past compensation records. The study notes that while AI can streamline operations, it can also introduce new risks tied to fairness and transparency.

Soon after the post went viral, many users urged the employee to take appropriate action. u/Nenoshka wrote, "You need to go stand on someone's desk until they cut you a paper check. None of this 'next pay period' sh*t." u/gijimayu commented, "They didn't pay you. Report it. If they aren't happy, tell them to add it to the cost of going AI." u/Sweaty_Illustrator14 shared, "This is wage theft. It is illegal in all 50 states and under federal law. You should let HR know you will file a report with the US DOL, State Labor, and State AG office if you don't get paid NOW."

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