Your employer might owe you money.
Line your paystub up against the hours you actually worked. Unpaid prep time, missing shift differentials, and breaks you worked through add up fast — this audit finds every dollar in about 3 minutes.
Shift Baseline
What your pay is supposed to be built on.
Paystub vs. Reality
What the stub says — versus what your shift actually looked like.
Reconciliation Engine
Updates live as you type. This is what the stub left on the table.
| Error type | Detail | Owed |
|---|
Recovery Strategy
Your tier is set by the share of pay that's missing.
HR Payroll Dispute
This isn't rounding error — it's a pattern. Take the line-item audit straight to payroll, in writing.
★ Your resultTime-Log Enforcement
Small leaks, every period. Build a daily time log so the next stub gets checked against proof, not memory.
★ Your resultPaystub Protection
Your stub checks out. Lock in the habit, spot-check monthly, and send the surplus somewhere it grows.
★ Your resultPaystub Dispute &
Cash Recovery Blueprint
Screenshot this card before you talk to payroll — it's your line-item record of exactly what's missing and why. Fill in the bracketed fields in the letter before sending.
Run the rest of your paycheck
Straight answers
Is short pay actually this common?
Yes — and it usually isn't one big theft, it's small leaks. The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recovers hundreds of millions of dollars in back wages every year, and the most common causes are boring: unpaid pre- and post-shift work, automatic meal-break deductions for breaks never taken, time-clock rounding that only ever rounds down, and differentials that never got applied. Warehouse, healthcare, food service, and manufacturing shifts get hit hardest because the work starts before the clock does.
What if HR or payroll ignores my dispute?
Escalate in writing, in order. First, resend the dispute with your time records attached and ask for a written response with a date. If nothing moves within one or two pay cycles, you can file a wage claim with your state labor department (usually free, often online) or a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243. Keep every paystub, schedule, and message — claims are won on records, and there's generally a two-to-three-year window to recover back wages under federal law.
How do I log my time without getting in trouble?
Keep it personal and boring. A notes app entry per shift — clock-in, clock-out, breaks taken or skipped, prep time before your shift — timestamped and kept on your own phone or notebook, not company systems. Photographing your posted schedule each week takes ten seconds. Tracking your own hours is legal, it's not confrontation, and most payroll departments fix discrepancies faster when a worker shows up with dates and numbers instead of a complaint.
This tool is an educational estimator, not legal advice and not an official wage claim. It calculates from the numbers you enter and standard assumptions (overtime after 40 hours in a workweek, prep and worked-through breaks valued at your base rate). Your actual rights depend on federal, state, and local law and your employer's policies. If you believe wages were withheld, your state labor department or an employment attorney can review your specific situation.