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I have a story about this! Back in 2015, I was in charge of HR and we were giving a raise to an IT person. They were going from $31.5k/year to $45k/year. Their per pay period was going from $1,213.85/pp to $1,730.77/pp. But, the HR clerk at the time goofed it .....

They put the $1,730.77 as their hourly rate, not pay period rate. So on the next pay check, it gave the employee $138,461.60 gross wages. The amount of taxes that it took out was breath taking, but I don't have those details anymore, I believe what actually hit the bank account was going to be 60k

At the time, we submitted the payroll file on Wednesday, it would take out of our bank on Thursday and hit employee banks, sometimes Thursday but definitely by Friday. After it was submitted, when the HR manager was reviewing the bank draw, they noticed the bank draw was 60k higher than normal...

and figured it out Thursday morning. The employee also figured it out Thursday morning because they saw the pending transaction and they reached out. We talked to our payroll company about how to reverse it and that's when I learned something fun, that the payroll company could just take it back.

I remember asking if the payroll company can only pull back what they put in, they said "No" they can request any amount. Not sure if the rules have changed since 2015, but it was an eye opening experience. We also still laugh with the employee about that paycheck as they are still here.

So if you are really paranoid about your company being evil when you are about to leave the company, make sure that your direct deposit account is empty, so they can't try to pull back your last paycheck or anything like that.