Advice on payslip mistake?

augusta24

I would really appreciate any advice on this and apologies if this is a stupid question but I've just started my first full time employee position and have a set salary for the first time. Previous to this I was a student and then self employed for a while.

My salary for this job is 33969 and I'm paid monthly. I had worked out that my monthly gross pay before tax would be 2830.75. However, I've just received my first payslip and for my first month my gross pay before tax is actually 3435.51 and I just can't work out how this could be.
Am I missing something simple or am I right in thinking there's been a mistake in my first pay?
My contract states my salary is 33969 and since I'm paid monthly I just divided this by 12 assuming every month I would be paid the same amount? Is this how it works usually or am I doing something wrong??

Stheno

Have you worked in a job prior to this one this year?

Rob Thomas

If you are paid monthly, it's common that you are paid partially in arrears and partially in advance across the calendar month. For example, if you are paid on the 15th of October for the month of October, you are paid in arrears for the 1st to 15th and in advance for the rest of the month. So you could be paid for the month after only working two weeks if you started on 1 Oct.

As a result, although you might have actually worked a month, you may have now been paid for up to 6 weeks?

Your best bet is to contact your payroll contact and ascertain to what date you have been paid. If there is a mistake, they will pick it up quick enough!

Alternatively, there may be some initial payments due which you have not factored in. E.g. An allowance for relocation etc. This may not be relevant in your case though.

augusta24

Thanks both for the quick replies. I worked self employed from jan to sept and began this paye job 29th sept. I'm paid the last day of the month but received my payslip today in advance of being paid Friday. No relocation payments unfortunately! Looks like I may find out who to contact in payroll about it.
Thanks guys

Stheno

Ah that makes a difference, you may now be getting a PAYE allowance for the entire year, which is about €137 net per month which might explain it and it's so late in the tax year it's built up

augusta24

Stheno wrote: »

Ah that makes a difference, you may now be getting a PAYE allowance for the entire year, which is about €137 net per month which might explain it and it's so late in the tax year it's built up

Yes I am getting a paye credit but I've instructed revenue to keep my personal credit for my self employed income so that should even things out really. Also it's gross income I'm talking about.

Thanks again for your input.

barneystinson

augusta24 wrote: »

Yes I am getting a paye credit but I've instructed revenue to keep my personal credit for my self employed income so that should even things out really. Also it's gross income I'm talking about.

Thanks again for your input.

Any BIK? Do you have a company car, or health insurance paid by employer...?

augusta24

barneystinson wrote: »

Any BIK? Do you have a company car, or health insurance paid by employer...?

Sorry what's bik? Nope nothing like that at all!

Mellor

The most obvious answer is usually correct.
It's probably just a prorata payment to for hours/days you did outside of this months pay.

No breakdown on your payslip?

augusta24

Mellor wrote: »

The most obvious answer is usually correct.
It's probably just a prorata payment to for hours/days you did outside of this months pay.

Yes i think you're right it seems I was paid for the extra hours I've worked. We have an online system that tracks our hours and leave etc. I was under the impression that I would not e paid for those extra hours as they are available as time off in lieu on the system.
It seems now that I've been paid for them- but they are still available as TOIL for me to take?

I'm sorry- I have a good understanding of taxes and credits etc but this is my first time ever dealing with annual leave and time off in lieu etc!

I was of the understanding that I would be paid my salary as stated in my contract and because the extra hours are coming up as toil I didn't think I'd be paid for them? But for example that I could take an afternoon off and use toil then and still be paid my usual money?! Is that not how toil works?!

thesimpsons

thats the way TOIL usually works. easiest thing for you is to contact payroll office. It'll sort if out much faster for you than speculation here and if a mistake has been made, it'll be rectified faster too.

I did yrs ago work somewhere that had different system for TOIL (you got time and half for extra hours worked, you put time hours into the time bank and they paid you the half time). nice one but never came across it ever again.

augusta24

Hi again everyone,

Thanks so much for the advice so far! I emailed payroll and it turns out that I haven't been paid for the time worked up. I had been confused about how they worked my hours out but they cleared that up for me.

But I still think im getting more money than I should be. It seems to me that my hourly rate is higher than what I would work it out to be.
I'm a bit hesitant to get back onto payroll just yet as I got the feeling I was disturbing them as I had originally thought my no. of hours were what was wrong until they explained how they work them out. I felt a bit stupid because they had a different method for working the hours per month out!

Can anyone tell me how they would work out an hourly rate for somebody who knows their annual salary?
I would have thought it was annual salary divided by 52 and then this divided by 37 hours worked.
Is this right or am I missing something obvious??
I'd love if it was just I was calculating this wrong, otherwise I'll have to get back onto payroll to ask them!