Guide

Missing hours on your paycheck? What to check first

Updated October 24, 2026

If your paycheck seems to be missing hours you worked, you can usually find out what happened with your own records and the pay stub. Work through these six checks in order before you contact payroll.

A difference between your record and your paycheck isn’t automatically a sign that anything was done wrong. Hours can be carried to the next paycheck, entered under another line or changed by a rule you didn’t know about. This guide uses US federal rules as its reference; state law, agreements and employer policies can add to them. It explains how to check the numbers and isn’t legal advice.

Step 1: Confirm the pay-period dates

Every pay stub covers a pay period, for example Sunday, November 1 to Saturday, November 14, and it’s usually paid several days later. Compare your hours for exactly those dates, not for the two weeks before the payday. Shifts on the last day or two of the period deserve a careful look. Some employers close payroll before the period ends and pay hours worked after the cutoff on a later paycheck. That’s a possible explanation, not an automatic one: a cutoff is an employer’s processing practice, while many states set their own rules for how often and how soon wages must be paid. If hours seem to have been held back, confirm with payroll which paycheck they’ll be on, and if you’re unsure whether the timing follows the rules where you work, ask your state labor department.

Step 2: Compare your record with the hours on the stub

Look at the earnings section of the stub: it usually lists hours and amounts for regular pay, overtime and other pay such as holiday, sick or shift differential. Compare gross pay and hours, not your take-home pay: taxes and deductions lower net pay, but they don’t change the hours you were paid for.

For each shift in your record, work out paid time: clock-out minus clock-in, minus unpaid breaks only. Under US federal rules, short rest breaks, usually about 5 to 20 minutes, generally count as hours worked and are paid. Bona fide meal periods, usually 30 minutes or more, generally aren’t work time, but only when you’re completely relieved from duty; a meal break spent answering calls or watching a counter generally counts as work. The work hours calculator adds up several shifts minus unpaid breaks, overnight shifts included.

Step 3: Check overtime and workweek boundaries

Federal overtime is counted per workweek, not per pay period, and a workweek can start in one pay period and end in the next. Overtime from such a week is generally paid on the regular payday for the period in which the workweek ends, so it can show up on the next paycheck. If your stub has fewer overtime hours than you expected, split your hours into workweeks first; Is overtime calculated weekly or biweekly? explains how, with examples. The overtime pay calculator works out one workweek at a time.

Step 4: Look for ordinary explanations

These are the common reasons a paycheck shows fewer hours or less pay than your own record. Each one is something you can check on the stub or ask about.

Step 5: Calculate the difference that’s left

Once you’ve ruled out the ordinary causes, put a number on what remains, in hours and in dollars. Here’s a worked example.

Riley earns $18.50 an hour and is paid every two weeks. The pay period runs from Sunday, November 1 to Saturday, November 14, 2026, and is paid on Friday, November 20. Riley’s workweek runs Sunday to Saturday. Lunch breaks are 30 minutes and unpaid; Riley also takes a paid 15-minute rest break on some days, which isn’t subtracted.

The November 20 pay stub shows 56.00 regular hours and gross pay of $1,036.00, with no overtime line.

The assumptions behind the expected amount: every hour is paid at $18.50, there are no premiums, tips or bonuses, rest breaks are paid and lunch breaks are unpaid, and Riley’s employer doesn’t round punches. Before treating the 4 hours as missing, Riley rules out the other causes:

The 4.00 hours are exactly the length of the Saturday, November 14 shift, the last day of the pay period. That’s consistent with a payroll cutoff or a missed punch, not with an error in the rate. It doesn’t show which, and it doesn’t show that anyone made a mistake: it tells Riley exactly what to ask.

Step 6: Prepare clear information for payroll

Payroll or HR is usually the quickest place to get an answer, and a short, specific question gets a better one. Include the pay period, the dates and times, the line that differs and the amount. For example:

For a broader walkthrough of rebuilding your gross pay line by line, see how to check your paycheck against your hours.

Keep a record you can check against

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid for non-exempt employees, including hours worked each workday and each workweek. The FLSA doesn’t require employers to give employees pay stubs, though state law may. Your own record doesn’t replace the employer’s, but it lets you check each paycheck and explain a question clearly. For each shift, write down:

• The date of the shift.
• Start and end times, to the minute, as they happened.
• Actual breaks: when each started and ended, and whether it was paid or unpaid, interrupted or skipped.
• Changes and corrections: a forgotten punch, a schedule change or a correction you asked for, with the date you reported it.
• The pay-period dates each shift belongs to.
• The hours and earnings on each pay stub, line by line.
• Your questions for payroll, with the date you asked and the answer you got.

Keep originals as they are. If you notice a mistake in your own record, add a dated note with the correction instead of overwriting the first entry, and keep copies of pay stubs and schedules. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division lists copies of pay stubs and personal records of hours worked among the information that’s helpful when contacting it, and it offers a free timesheet app for iPhone and Android, the WorkWise Timesheet app (formerly DOL-Timesheet). A personal log is your own record: it can help you and payroll find a difference, but it isn’t automatically conclusive, and how any record is weighed depends on the circumstances.

If it still doesn’t add up

Ask payroll or HR first, with your numbers. Some differences are corrected on a later paycheck once they’re reported. If you still have questions about the rules that apply to you, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or your state’s labor department can explain them. The Wage and Hour Division says its services are free and confidential. This guide doesn’t predict outcomes or give deadlines; rules and time limits vary, so ask the agency directly.

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