Timely
How to Check Your Paycheck for Mistakes (in About 5 Minutes)
Your pay stub is a math problem you can check yourself. Here's the routine, the overtime trap that quietly shortens biweekly paychecks, and what to say if something's off.
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The short version
- Check gross pay, not take-home. Taxes and deductions make net pay almost impossible to verify.
- Use the exact pay period dates printed on the stub, not "the last two weeks."
- Overtime is usually counted per workweek — 38 hours plus 44 hours is not the same as 82 hours.
Most people glance at the deposit, decide it "looks about right," and move on. That's exactly how small mistakes survive for months. A missing half-hour here and an old pay rate there rarely look wrong at a glance — but they add up.
The good news: if you know your hours, checking a paycheck takes about five minutes.
Gross pay vs. take-home pay
Gross pay is what you earned before anything comes out: your hours times your rate, plus overtime, tips reported through payroll, shift differentials and so on. Net pay (take-home) is what's left after taxes, insurance, retirement contributions and other deductions.
Always check gross first. It's pure math from your hours, so it either matches or it doesn't. Net pay depends on tax withholding rules and benefits elections, which is a different conversation — and usually not where the mistakes are.
The 5-minute check
- Find the pay period on your stub. It's usually labeled "Period beginning / ending" or "Pay period." Payday is often a few days after the period closes, so the most recent shifts may land on the next check.
- Total your hours for those exact dates — and keep each workweek separate if you work more than 40 hours in any of them.
- Calculate your expected gross. Regular hours × your rate, plus overtime hours × 1.5 × your rate, plus anything else you're owed (holiday pay, shift differentials, tips run through payroll).
- Compare two lines on the stub: total hours and gross pay. If both match, you're done.
- If something's off, check hours before rate. A missing shift or missed punch is the most likely cause; an old rate after a raise is next.
A worked example
Say you earn $18 an hour, you're paid every two weeks, and your workweeks went like this:
| Week | Hours | Math | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 38.5 | 38.5 × $18 | $693.00 |
| Week 2 — regular | 40 | 40 × $18 | $720.00 |
| Week 2 — overtime | 4 | 4 × $27 | $108.00 |
| Expected gross | 82.5 | $1,521.00 |
The trap: if payroll treats the two weeks as one 82.5-hour block, it only finds 2.5 overtime hours (everything past 80). That pays 80 × $18 + 2.5 × $27 = $1,507.50 — $13.50 short. Under federal rules, overtime is figured week by week, so the 4 overtime hours in week 2 can't be averaged away by a light week 1.
$13.50 doesn't sound like much. Repeat it twice a month for a year and it's over $300.
The most common paycheck mistakes
- A missing shift or punch — a shift you picked up last minute, or a clock-out that never registered.
- The old pay rate after a raise, promotion or role change.
- Overtime averaged across two weeks, like the example above.
- A break deducted that you didn't take, often from an automatic 30-minute lunch deduction on a day you worked straight through. See paid vs. unpaid breaks.
- Rounding that only goes one way. Rounding clock times is allowed in many places, but it's supposed to even out — not always shave minutes off.
- Missing extras like holiday pay, a night-shift differential, or tips that were supposed to run through payroll.
Timely keeps an exact record of every shift and break, and its Paycheck Match compares that record with what you were actually paid.
What to do if your paycheck is short
- Assume it's a mistake, not a scheme. Most errors are clerical, and a calm message gets them fixed fastest.
- Be specific, in writing. Email payroll or your manager with the pay period, the dates and hours from your record, the hours on the stub, and the difference. Specifics turn "I think I'm missing hours" into a five-minute fix.
- Keep your records. Save the stub and your log for that period. If it happens again, you'll want both.
- If it isn't resolved, your state's labor department or the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division can help with unpaid wages and overtime.
Let a tool do the math
If you'd rather not build the table above by hand:
- Our free paycheck hours checker runs entirely in your browser. Enter a week of shifts and your rate and it estimates regular and overtime gross pay — no account, nothing uploaded.
- If you track shifts in Timely, Paycheck Match already has your hours for the pay period. Enter what your paycheck says and it shows whether the two line up.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Overtime rules vary: some salaried roles are exempt, and some states (California, for example) also have daily overtime. Check your state's labor department for the rules where you work.