Last year, the Global Payroll Association said one in ten office staff have been overpaid by their employer, with a quarter not reporting it.
But the BBC, run by Director-General Tim Davie, has written off 492 cases over the past five years, costing licence fee-payers £522,000.
The average advertised salary hit a record £41,000 last year but vacancies fell to a four-year low, a report said.
New figures showed the broadcaster accidentally overpaid workers by a staggering £4 million over the past four years.
A BBC spokesman said: “Erroneous payments are rare and occur in 0.24 per cent of payments.”.
