Boston City Council demands written report after July 4th payroll error delayed thousands of paychecks

BOSTON — August 14, 2025 — Boston City Council grills administration over $45 million July 4th payroll error that left thousands of employees without pay. The Committee on City Services and Innovation Technology, chaired by Councillor Enrique J. Pepén and convened on Docket No. 1371 at the request of Councillors Erin J. Murphy and Edward M. Flynn, heard from CFO Ashley Grafenberger, Chief People Officer Alex Lawrence, and City Auditor Scott Finn, who confirmed a manual data-entry mistake entered July 4 — a bank holiday — rather than the intended July 3 paycheck date. Officials estimated 75 percent of employees were paid by Saturday, meaning an estimated 4,000 or more workers waited until the next business day; the city received only 20 overdraft-fee-waiver requests despite the scale of the disruption. Flynn demanded a formal after-action report and asked panelists to refer to the city law department the question of whether the delayed payment violated state or federal wage law. Grafenberger committed to adding automated holiday-blocking to the payroll system so dates can never again be entered manually on a bank holiday, citing Juneteenth falling on a Friday in 2026 as the next foreseeable risk.