Paycheck difference calculator

How to check a paycheck against your hours

1. Use the pay period printed on the paycheck and the hours you worked in exactly that period.
2. Split regular and overtime hours week by week. Under the US Fair Labor Standards Act, overtime is counted per workweek and hours can’t be averaged across weeks, so in a two-week pay period work out each week first, then add the weeks.
3. Estimate gross pay: regular hours × rate, plus overtime hours × rate × multiplier, plus any tips and bonuses paid through payroll. Round each line to the cent, then add them.
4. Compare gross with gross, not with your take-home pay, which is after taxes and deductions.
5. Compare the lines the paycheck shows, such as regular hours, overtime hours and tips, to see where a difference may come from.

Worked example

You worked 40 regular hours and 6 overtime hours at $23.00 an hour, with overtime at time and a half. The paycheck shows $1,058.00 gross and 4 overtime hours.

The paycheck shows 2 fewer overtime hours than your record. At $34.50 an overtime hour, 2 hours is $69.00, the same as the whole difference, so the overtime hours are a possible contributor that accounts for all of it. That’s arithmetic, not a conclusion: the next step is to find out why the hours differ, for example by comparing the dates, or by asking whether some overtime will be paid on the next paycheck.

Reading the result

• Everything matches: the gross pay and every line you entered agree with your estimate.
• Lower or higher: the paycheck’s gross pay differs from your estimate by the amount shown.
• Totals match: the gross pay agrees, but at least one line you entered doesn’t. A paycheck can add up to the right total with hours split differently, for example.
• Possible contributor: a line that differs in the same direction as the gross pay, with its dollar effect. Tips are worth their own difference; an hours difference is worth the hours times the hourly amount for that kind of time.
• Unexplained difference: the part of the gap the lines you entered don’t account for. It may come from something this calculator doesn’t include.
• Can’t compare totals: without an hourly rate there’s no estimate to compare the gross pay with. The hours and tips you entered are still compared.

Only lines that move in the same direction as the gross difference count as possible contributors. If the paycheck is lower overall but shows more regular hours, those extra hours can’t explain a lower total, so they’re listed as a line that differs, without counting toward the explanation.

Why hours are compared at the paycheck’s precision

Paychecks print hours in different ways: 38.5, 38.50 or 38.333. Your 38 hours 20 minutes is 38.3333… hours, which a paycheck may print as 38.33 or 38.3. The calculator rounds your hours to the number of decimal places you typed, half up, before comparing, so 38.33 and 38.3 both match. Typing 38.30 asks for a two-decimal comparison, which shows a 0.03-hour difference.

Common reasons a paycheck differs

• A different pay period, or a shift near the start or end of the period counted in the next one.
• Overtime paid later. Federal rules generally require overtime to be paid on the regular payday for the period in which the workweek ends, and allow a short delay when it can’t be calculated in time, so overtime from a week that crosses two pay periods can land on a later paycheck.
• Rounding of clock-in and clock-out times. See timecard rounding explained.
• Unpaid breaks deducted automatically, or breaks you took that weren’t recorded.
• A rate change in the middle of the period, a shift differential or another premium, or pay at more than one rate.
• Tips or bonuses paid separately, or not through payroll.

For a full walkthrough with the pay stub in hand, read how to check your paycheck against your hours. If a number still doesn’t match, your payroll team, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or your state labor department can explain the rules that apply to you.

What this calculator doesn’t do

• Work out overtime for you: it takes the period’s regular and overtime hours as you enter them. Use the overtime pay calculator week by week first.
• More than one rate, premiums, shift differentials or double time, or the FLSA “regular rate” that can include some bonuses.
• Net pay: taxes and deductions aren’t estimated.
• Decide who is right: it shows which numbers differ and the arithmetic. It doesn’t determine what anyone is owed.

Questions