Paycheck Accuracy Checker

How to check if your paycheck is correct

Almost every paycheck tool online estimates a check you have not received yet. This one does the opposite: it takes the numbers already printed on the stub in your hand and tells you whether they hold up. Four steps, in order.

Start with the hours. Compare the hours on the stub to your own records, shift by shift. Missed punches are the single most common payroll input error, and nothing downstream can catch them because the hours never reached the system. Then check the rate and the multiplier. Your base rate should match your agreement, and overtime hours should be paid at 1.5x that rate unless a state rule or contract sets something higher. Gross pay comes next, and regular pay plus overtime pay plus any bonus, tips, or shift differential should equal the gross printed on the stub. Last is the one identity that holds on every valid stub: gross pay minus total deductions equals net pay.

Two of the deduction lines are checkable from the outside because they are fixed percentages. Social Security is withheld at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45%, so 7.65% together, and Social Security stops for the year once your wages reach the annual wage base of $184,500 in 2026. Those percentages apply to your FICA-taxable wages, which pre-tax health, FSA, and HSA contributions reduce, so a slightly lower line is not automatically an error.

The most common paycheck errors (and which ones this tool catches)

Missed or mis-entered punches. A shift that never made it into the system, or a punch entered as 8:00 instead of 6:00. The checker catches this the moment you enter the hours you actually worked, because the gross it produces will not match the stub. Rebuild the hours first with the weekly timecard calculator if you are not sure of the total.

Straight time paid for overtime. The overtime hours are all there, but they were paid at your base rate instead of time-and-a-half. The overtime premium line above is the tell: when the premium is zero on hours that should carry one, the callout prices exactly what is missing.

Overtime averaged across workweeks. The FLSA measures overtime per workweek, not per pay period. On a biweekly stub, 50 hours one week and 30 the next is 10 hours of overtime, not zero, even though the two-week total is 80. Enter the overtime hours by workweek rather than accepting the stub's own overtime figure.

A nondiscretionary bonus left out of the regular rate. A production, attendance, or shift-differential payment has to be folded into the regular rate, which raises the overtime rate for that week. This tool adds the bonus to gross but does not recompute your regular rate, so a stub can pass the gross check and still be short. Run it through the regular rate of pay calculator.

The wrong rate after a raise. When a raise takes effect mid-period and payroll applies it late, you are owed retroactive pay for the hours already worked at the new rate. The retroactive pay calculator works out the difference.

What this checker cannot verify

Federal income tax withholding is not checked here, and that is deliberate. It depends on the W-4 you filed, including filing status, multiple-jobs adjustments, dependents, and any extra withholding you requested. A pay stub does not reveal those elections, so any number a static page produced would be a guess dressed up as a verdict. Instead, federal withholding lands in the unaccounted deductions line with no verdict attached.

State and local income tax, insurance premiums, retirement contributions, garnishments, and union dues sit in that same residual. They vary by employer and jurisdiction, and there is no single correct value to check them against. The Social Security wage base and the Additional Medicare Tax are annual thresholds tied to your year-to-date wages, which one stub cannot show, so the FICA check assumes you are below both.

What is genuinely checkable: the gross pay arithmetic, the gross minus deductions identity, and the FICA percentages. Those three cover a large share of real payroll errors.

What to do if your paycheck is short

Start with documentation. Keep your own record of clock-ins, clock-outs, and breaks, because a dispute between your memory and the employer's timekeeping system tends to go the way of whoever has records. Tracking your shifts with Timeclock44 gives you those independent timestamps, and it exports a PDF or CSV timesheet you can hand over.

Take it to payroll rather than your manager. Payroll owns the numbers and can usually explain or fix a discrepancy quickly. Put the request in writing, list the pay period, the hours you worked, and the difference you calculated, and ask for a written response. Most short paychecks are ordinary mistakes and get corrected on the next regular payday.

If it is not fixed, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division or your state labor agency, and the FLSA prohibits retaliation for doing so. For several short pay periods, the back pay calculator totals the unpaid wages plus potential liquidated damages.

This checker provides estimates for informational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or payroll advice. FICA is checked against your gross, so pre-tax health, FSA, and HSA deductions will legitimately push your actual Social Security and Medicare lines below the expected figures. It does not verify federal income tax withholding, state or local tax, insurance premiums, retirement contributions, or garnishments. Figures reflect 2026 federal rates. Consult your payroll department or a qualified professional about your specific paycheck.