Who's getting short-shifted?

May 9, 2007 8:48 PM

I have discovered discrepancies on my pay stubs.

My employer has been changing the withholding from pay period to pay period, and my name and address have been misspelled in various ways. I just caught on to this, and now I'm worried that this may negatively impact me down the road. Is there anything I should ask, or look out for, when I address this issue?

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Depends where you are but it could be related to whether your employer has the right tax details for you (Tax File Number here in Australia). Also, could be the effect of government loans such as university/HECS debts. Other than that, id be asking some serious questions to payroll and at the end of the year, Id ask for a tax reconciliation to your group certificate.
posted by OzMoges at 8:57 PM on May 9, 2007

Withholding does change from pay period to pay period on most automated pay stubs. The formula's pretty complicated; the amount of withholding per period goes up as the total income for the year increases.
posted by ikkyu2 at 9:16 PM on May 9, 2007

Without knowing where you're located or what kind of accounting system your employer is using, I can't contribute much. In the best case, they're outsourding their payroll or corporate and therefore under some level of continual audit. In the worst case scenario of negligence and/or inadequacy, your employer is winging it each and every time, tallying your hours by hand, say, and getting it wrong.

I worked for a subcontracting company of this caliber. They consistently sought to violate the labor code and I, as the in-house bookkeeper was to tabulate the hours in accordance with their cockeyed policies. I actually had to refer the employees to the labor board (and soon quit), but which authority you might use a a resource is, yes, dependent on your location.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:22 AM on May 10, 2007

If you're in the US, the name mispellings don't matter as long as the social security number is correct. Your social security number, not your name, is your "Taxpayer ID".
posted by textilephile at 4:20 AM on May 10, 2007

You can look up what the withholding should be. The tax tax tables are public and on the IRS web site, and pretty easy to use.
posted by smackfu at 5:50 AM on May 10, 2007

Do you trust your employer? You can always ask them about this. If they're doing something shifty, they can't very well fire you for pointing it out (and if they do you have a very good case for a lawsuit). They may be able to explain it to you better than a bunch of strangers who don't know how much you're making, what your pay is based on (hours/regular salary), or even where you live.

In any case, an easy way to ease into this is to bring up the misspelling. That isn't very threatening to them and might open up the discussion to "Oh, and what's the deal with the withholding? It looks like the amount changes from month to month. Is there any way I can find out how that works? It would be very helpful for me in figuring out my monthly budget." Don't make it about them being sneaky bastards. Make it about you wanting to make sure that you and they both have the right information.
posted by Deathalicious at 6:43 AM on May 10, 2007

Establish a trusting, friendly relationship with your payroll accountant or controller. Remember that they may not have great social skills, and they usually interact with people only when there is a problem or complaint. Know that many of the complaints they get are mean-spirited. What they do is important to you and your company. Tell them that you're very thankful for what they do.

Then, establish with them that you want to understand your finances better, and as part of this, you need to understand your paycheck. Be dumber than you actually are. Tell them you are trying to account for your spending on healthcare and taxes more specifically, and you'd like to a series of conversations to get smart about them. Make them a mentor as best you can.

Know that while fraud is a possibility, 99.99% of all errors on a paycheck are unintentional. If you find an error, allow them the opportunity to fix it. It doesn't sound like you have proof of fraud, so keep in mind that they will take it very, very seriously. If you want to understand what it means, think of how you would feel if a co-worker claimed you had lied on your application and resume, forcing you to go back and prove it was correct with all your transcripts and recommendations from friends. If the "f-word" comes out of your mouth and you are wrong, you will lose a lot of credibility with your employer.
posted by redarmycomrade at 7:27 AM on May 10, 2007