Paid for Every Hour

Paycheck check

Your pay stub looks short by

$23.13before taxes

should be
$809.38
on the stub
$786.25
42:30
hours worked
40:00
regular
2:30
overtime

The amount on your stub is what 42:30 hours come to at $18.50 an hour with no overtime premium. Your 2:30 overtime hours look like they were paid at the regular rate.

Your hours

Like 42:30 or 42.5

Your pay stub

The total before taxes and deductions, not your take-home pay.

Saved on this device only.

Enter the hours you worked, your hourly rate and the gross pay printed on your stub. The top of the page shows what you should have been paid and whether the stub comes up short. Nothing you type leaves your device.

How do I check that my paycheck is right?

Multiply your regular hours by your hourly rate, and your overtime hours by one and a half times that rate, and add the two. Compare the result with the gross pay on your pay stub, which is the amount before taxes and deductions.

Under US federal law overtime is every hour over 40 in a workweek, and each week is counted on its own even if you are paid every two weeks. If the stub is lower than your figure, ask payroll which hours they counted.

Which number to use from the stub

Use gross pay: the total before taxes, health insurance and other deductions. Some stubs call it “Total earnings”. Do not use net pay, which is what lands in your account and is always lower.

Check the dates too. The pay period on the stub may not be the same days you counted. If you have not added up your hours yet, the time card calculator does it with breaks and overtime, and you can bring that week over here with one tap.

Federal law makes your employer keep a record of your hours and your pay, so you can ask to see the hours they counted.

Source: Department of Labor Fact Sheet 21: Recordkeeping.

Why a paycheck comes up short

  • Overtime paid at the regular rate. Hours over 40 in the week are paid at one and a half times, not the same price.
  • Two weeks averaged together. Working 50 hours one week and 30 the next is 10 hours of overtime, even though the total is 80. Federal law does not allow averaging weeks.
  • A break taken off that you worked through. Some systems subtract half an hour for lunch every day. If you worked during it, it is paid time.
  • Rounding that only goes down. Rounding your punches is allowed only if, over time, it does not cost you pay.
  • Work before or after clocking in. Opening, closing, cleaning or changing when the job requires it counts as time worked.

A stub can also be higher than this sum, because of a bonus, tips, holiday pay or a different rate for some hours. This page only compares hours times your hourly rate.

Sources: Department of Labor: Overtime Pay and Fact Sheet 22: Hours Worked.

If your pay looks short

Keep your own record of your hours: this page, a photo of the schedule, a note on your phone. Compare it with your pay stub, then ask whoever does payroll to show you the hours they counted. Honest mistakes get fixed that way.

If that does not work, the Wage and Hour Division of the US Department of Labor takes complaints from workers. The call is free, complaints are confidential, you can speak Spanish, and the division enforces the law without regard to your immigration status.

1-866-487-9243

How to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division, and its answers to workers' questions. In California you can also file a wage claim with the Labor Commissioner. Do not wait years: federal law generally reaches back two years, three if the violation was willful.

This page does arithmetic. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace your employer's records or a lawyer. If you find a mistake here, tell us.

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