Every month, employees receive a salary. At the same time, the employer is required to issue a payslip. This is a document that contains information about all deductions from an employee’s wages. At the same time, each item must be painted in the document. How much was deducted, and where was it sent?
Many employees have questions. Can deductions be erroneous? How can this be checked? It’s straightforward. Today there are pay stub generators online where you can calculate actual earnings. The program calculates how much you should receive and how much you should pay.
What Should be on the Pay Stub?
Employees should check their payroll regularly. If the net payroll changes unexpectedly, the reason may be a change in tax class or other payroll tax deduction functions. The payroll is a central document issued to an employee at certain intervals and contains information about the employee’s wages or salary composition.
How can I check a pay stub? There are several criteria to consider when reviewing your payroll. These include, for example, income tax class, working hours, vacation days, child benefits, and social security contributions. By the way, payroll errors often occur at the end of the year. Here, it is especially appropriate to calculate all individual items at your leisure rather than filing an unread payroll. A timely payroll check is proper to eliminate errors with little effort. If too much time is missed, it becomes increasingly difficult to figure out the details — perhaps in conversations with supervisors.
Errors are widespread in the following information:
- Vacations. If the number of vacation days is miscalculated, it is always a disadvantage for the employee. Therefore, in the case of disagreements, you should immediately find out how they arose and, if necessary, correct them. You should also ensure that possible days off due to part-time work are accounted for correctly. Here, too, mistakes can creep in at the employee’s expense.
- Office hours. The hours worked are sometimes reflected on the payroll. They are the basis for calculating pay and, therefore, the deciding factor. Employees must also check if the hours have been calculated correctly, but hours worked are not a mandatory part of the application. Therefore, employees are not allowed to indicate them on the actual list.
- Income tax class. The payroll tax class can repeatedly change during a company’s accession. Marriage or divorce — or the birth of a child- directly affects the payroll tax class and the tax burden that arises for the employee as a taxable entity. Therefore, the changes must be immediately transferred to the payroll calculation: here, the employee must provide the relevant information and evidence. The income tax class determines the net wages that arrive in the employee’s account at the end of the month. This, too, should be checked — primarily because of the correctly determined tax burden.
- Child benefits. An employee’s child allowance is determined by the number of children, as well as their age and potential employment.
- Social security contributions. Social security contributions make up a large part of the wage bill. The social security code is decisive here. It consists of four digits and determines how health, pension, unemployment, and long-term care insurance contributions are calculated. The social security code is four times one for regular employees in an employment relationship.
- Grants, awards, and bonuses. For example, employees who work weekends or night shifts receive different allowances. Depending on the work plan’s structure, they may make up most of the payroll, but only if they have been calculated correctly. You should also check the payroll here to avoid financial difficulties. This also applies to any allowances, bonuses, and subsidies for further training.
Every employee has the right to have their payroll checked. This is an opportunity to assert your righteousness in front of your employer in case of a violation.
Where can I Check the Payroll?
Although payroll is not a “book with seven seals,”-it is often an insurmountable obstacle, especially for laymen, to check or counter-calculate individual items. Here, the support of an expert can be a valuable aid. You can check your payroll with a tax advisor or an attorney specializing in employment law and, at the same time, have an expert on your side who can provide you with legally sound information on how to proceed. An attorney can also be beneficial in the event of subsequent legal conflicts with your employer.
It is not uncommon for payroll errors to raise the question of whether an employer is cheating in payroll — this can quickly escalate into a legal conflict, especially in the case of a persistent improper payroll.
Check your payroll yourself or trust the payroll professionals to check your payroll — they will also help you if any difficulties and litigation are required. If you want to check your payroll, there is a good tool with a free gross-net calculator to get an initial overview. It works very simply: Enter the essential parameters into the form, and you will get an analysis of all actual deductions in just one click.
What Should I do if I Find Errors in Payroll?
Whether using an online tool or in consultation with an expert: If there are errors in the payroll, you should correct them immediately and, ideally, send them to your employer in writing.
Important to know: The employee is, in principle, not obliged to check the payroll. However, it’s in your best interest to do the check because: Overpaid fees can be recovered within the statutory statute of limitations.
As mentioned above, the employer must prepare a pay slip for each employee. This is not only a receipt for the employee himself but also a verification document — for example, for the tax office. Thus, payroll errors can have far-reaching consequences for the payroll recipient and cause legal difficulties for the employer.
In principle, the employee should notify the employer in writing of payroll errors and thus formulate their objection. The usual three-year statute of limitations also applies here. However, this only applies if there are no relevant exclusion clauses, such as in a collective bargaining agreement or a company contract: they may, under certain circumstances, guarantee that the employee must make claims within a certain period.
