Pay stub errors and how to correct them
Payroll systems fail in predictable ways. Knowing the seven that recur makes a stub review a checklist rather than a hunch.
The common ones
- Stale rate. A raise that never made it into the system, or a shift differential still applied to hours that no longer qualify.
- Missing overtime. Straight time paid for overtime hours, or overtime calculated on the base rate without the bonus that lifts the regular rate.
- Automatic meal deduction. Thirty minutes deducted every day including the days the employee worked through, which is a widespread and expensive error.
- Wrong tax set-up. An old W-4 or state residency carried from a previous address, or a form keyed with the wrong number of dependants.
- Rounding drift. Rounding that always runs one way, which is described on the rounding page and is recoverable.
- Wrong rate for the wrong hours. A higher rate applied to regular time and a lower rate to overtime, when the opposite applies.
- Deduction that never stopped. A loan repayment, a uniform deduction or a union due that should have ended and did not.
The look-back
Unpaid wages can generally be recovered for two years, three where the failure was wilful, and liquidated damages equal to the shortfall are the norm. Deductions that were simply wrong usually carry a shorter contractual limit, often one year, so check earlier rather than later.
A correction process that works
- Totals first. State the period, the hours, the rate and the exact difference owed. Two or three lines, no narrative.
- Attach the evidence: your record, the timesheet, the offer letter or the payroll policy.
- Send it in writing to payroll and copy your manager, keeping the sent copy.
- Ask for the correction in the next run and a written reply if they disagree.
- If nothing in two pay periods, go to the state labour department. It is free and does not require a lawyer.
Keep your own record regardless
A contemporaneous note of hours, days, rate and duties, kept fortnightly, is the one piece of evidence you fully control. Rotation of managers means the person who agreed to the rate will not always be there to confirm it.
Our takePayroll errors are rarely theft and almost always a stale record: an old rate, a wrong tax code, a shift differential that stopped applying. The fix is a dated written request, not a confrontation.