Teachers work hard on behalf of their students, and you deserve to be paid correctly. Unfortunately, payroll errors can and do occur, and even small payroll errors can affect your take-home pay, retirement contributions, benefits, and leave balances.
Reviewing your pay stub every pay period is one of the easiest ways to protect your earnings and ensure you receive everything you are entitled to under your contract. When you take a few minutes to review your paystub, you can prevent small errors from becoming larger problems over time.
What Should You Check?
Salary & Pay Rate
- Is your salary correct according to the contract?
- Have step increases or lane changes been applied?
Additional Compensation
- Stipends
- Coaching or extracurricular pay
- Department chair or lead teacher pay
- Curriculum writing or summer work
- Coverage and extra-duty assignments
Benefits & Deductions
- Health insurance deductions
- Dental and vision deductions
- Voluntary benefits
- Tax withholdings
- Union dues
- Pension contributions
- Retirement contributions, e.g. 403(b)
Some Common Payroll Errors
Some of the most common issues teachers find include:
- Missing step increases or lane changes
- Incorrect salary placement
- Missing stipends or extra-duty pay
- Incorrect insurance deductions
- Errors in pension contributions
- Errors in retirement contributions, for example to 403(b) accounts
- FICA/Social Security taxes being erroneously withheld
- Overpayments or underpayments
- Delayed implementation of salary adjustments
If You Find an Error
When you review your paystub, if you find something that could be an error, review your records and compare your current pay stub to previous pay stubs and your collective bargaining agreement. Then gather documentation. Keep copies of:
- Contracts
- Salary adjustment notices
- Assignment letters
- Time sheets or extra-duty records
Make sure you contact payroll promptly. The sooner an error is reported, the easier it is to correct.
And remember to reach out to your union. If you run into issues resolving your payroll errors, your union can help. Even if you successfully resolve your error, if there’s a chance another employee might be affected by a similar problem reaching out to your union can help them flag the issue and ensure other members aren’t impacted.
Taking just five minutes or less each pay period to review your pay stub can prevent larger issues down the road and help ensure you receive every dollar, benefit, and contribution you have earned.
