Here why you should be reviewing your pay stubs carefully
How often do you check your pay stubs? Here’s why you need to review them carefully.
Everyone remembers receiving their first paycheck. And while the novelty wears off quite quickly, the importance of the paperwork that outlines what you have earned in a given week or month remains in place.
In fact if you have stopped looking at your paystubs when they come through, now is the perfect time to start reviewing them more closely. To find out why this is relevant for employees of organizations of all sizes, read on.
You may not be getting a paystub
The first thing worth noting is that in some parts of the country, businesses are not legally obliged to issue paystubs to workers. This can leave you in the dark about your salary, tax, expenses and other deductions, as well as creating a gap in your records that could come back to bite you later on.
Thankfully you can now take advantage of online services that help with generating a paystub even if the company you work for does not do this for you. Having paystubs to hand can help in various situations, such as for providing proof of income when applying for a loan, so staying on top of this should be a priority.
Inaccuracies are common
If you do not review your paystub regularly, you might find that inaccurate information is present on it which could have an impact further down the line.
Mistakes are often made in the payroll process, so you should take the time to check that things like your Social Security number and tax codes are all entered correctly.
This is not just being detail-oriented for its own sake; you could find that errors are causing you to underpay or overpay tax, which is obviously a flaw you will want to fix sooner rather than later.
Even if your employer has managed to avoid making mistakes on your paystub so far, do not assume that this means the next one will be perfect; a quick check for inaccuracies when it arrives will serve you well.
Those on hourly pay should be even more vigilant
If you are on a fixed salary which is not tracked directly on the number of hours you work in a given month, this factor will be less relevant, but for anyone who is paid by the hour and has to clock in and out to earn their keep, paystub scrutiny is especially sensible.
This is also a good reason to keep your own records of how long you have worked and compare these against the figures on each paystub to look for the desired alignment. If hours are missing and you are being underpaid because of this, you will want to point this out to your employer immediately.
With more paystubs being issued digitally, it is easier to receive and review the information they contain today, so all you need to do is resist the temptation to assume that everything is in order and instead check up regularly.
