The Pay Stub That Doesn't Match the Schedule
Nadia started a full-time job at $15.75 an hour. Her offer letter says "full-time, 40 hours per week." She works Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a 30-minute unpaid lunch that she punches out for. The timeclock rounds to the nearest quarter hour, so her 7:58 a.m. punch records as 8:00 and her 5:02 p.m. punch records as 5:00. Twice in her first two weeks she worked through lunch because a coworker was out, but she did not write it down. Her first pay stub covers two weeks and shows: regular hours 72.5, overtime 0, gross pay $1,141.88, federal income tax $68.51, state income tax $22.84, Social Security 6.2%, Medicare 1.45%, and a $35 "uniform fee." She was measured for two polo shirts with the company logo on her first day.
1. Check the gross pay and the two percentage deductions. What is correct, and what does not add up?
Read the worked answer
Gross pay: 72.5 hours × $15.75 = $1,141.875, which rounds to $1,141.88. The arithmetic is correct - the problem is the hours, not the multiplication.
Percentage deductions: Social Security at 6.2% of $1,141.88 is $70.80; Medicare at 1.45% is $16.56. She should check those two lines against the stub. If they were withheld on a different base - for example, if gross were higher before some adjustment - she should ask payroll why.
What does not add up:
- She is scheduled 40 hours a week, so a two-week stub should show 80 regular hours. It shows 72.5 - 7.5 hours unaccounted for.
- Overtime is zero, but that only matters if any single week exceeded 40 hours. Overtime is calculated week by week, not by adding two weeks together, so she needs to total each week separately.
- The $35 uniform fee is a deduction, not a tax. Whether an employer may charge it may depend on state law and whether the shirts are required; she should ask rather than assume it is allowed or forbidden.
The most likely explanation for 72.5 hours is a missed punch or a lunch that was deducted twice - which is exactly what the two worked-through lunches would cause.
2. What does the rounding policy cost Nadia over ten workdays, and is that the biggest problem on this stub?
Read the worked answer
The rounding cost: she loses 2 minutes in the morning (7:58 recorded as 8:00) and 2 minutes in the evening (5:02 recorded as 5:00) - 4 minutes per day. Over 10 workdays that is 40 minutes, or about 0.67 hours, roughly $10.50 at her rate.
It is not the biggest problem. Three larger items sit on the same stub:
- 7.5 missing regular hours - about $118 at $15.75. That is more than ten times the rounding loss.
- Two unpaid lunch periods she actually worked - 1 hour total, about $15.75, and possibly overtime depending on the week.
- Possible overtime if either week went over 40 hours, which would be paid at 1.5 times her rate.
The rounding policy is worth mentioning because it is systematic, but if Nadia opens with a complaint about four minutes a day, she may lose the bigger conversation. She should raise the missing hours first and mention rounding as a pattern to fix.
3. What should Nadia do, in order, and what should she keep?
Read the worked answer
Keep, starting today:
- Her own log of each day's actual punch-in, punch-out, and lunch, written at the time, not reconstructed later.
- Photos of the posted schedule and of her timeclock punches.
- The offer letter, the pay stub, and any texts or emails about covering the coworker's shift.
Then, in order:
- Ask her supervisor about the 7.5 hours and the two worked lunches, factually: "I'm scheduled 80 hours and the stub shows 72.5. Can we check my punches together?" Follow up in writing - a short email summarizing the conversation - so there is a record.
- If the next paycheck does not correct it, go to payroll or HR in writing, attaching her log.
- If it is still uncorrected, contact the state labor department. Wage claims usually have time limits, so she should not wait months.
What not to do: do not alter a time record, do not argue about it in front of customers, and do not quit before documenting - leaving can complicate a wage claim. If she is asked to work through lunch again, she should write the time down the same day and tell her supervisor that day, not at the end of the pay period.