The City of Seattle says they learned of overpayments for 900 police department employees who were members of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. They learned of the error in mid-July, finding the overpayments totaled more than $13 million.

The city alerted City Council in early August, and sent an email to police staff last week alerting them of the error.

By the numbers: The city was required to pay negotiated retroactive wage increases of 6% for hours worked in 2024. In calculating the backpay for the beginning of 2024, staff used base rates from 2020 rather than 2024. This caused employees to receive the difference between their 2020 rates and their new 2024 rates, resulting in a significantly larger payment.

Officials confirmed the mistake was a manual data oversight and not a system glitch.