Spot what's wrong with this paycheck
GameVerified 2026-11-01
Six pay stubs, each with something wrong. Click or tab to the lines you think are wrong, then check. Every one is a real violation, explained in plain terms with the rule behind it. It takes about three minutes.
Round 1: the Saturday server
Dana waits tables in Houston. The week was slow: 32 hours, $120 in card tips. The restaurant takes the full Texas tip credit.
What was wrong (2):
- Tip credit make-up to $7.25. Cash plus tips is $188.16 for 32 hours, or $5.88 an hour. The employer owes the gap to $7.25: $43.84 this week. The tip credit only works when the total reaches the full minimum.
- Tip pool contribution, includes GM share. A general manager can't take any part of a tip pool. Since the 2018 amendment to 29 U.S.C. 203(m)(2)(B), managers and supervisors are barred from keeping employees' tips, credit or no credit.
More on this: Tipped minimum wage and the employer tip credit.
Round 2: the clock that only rounds one way
Marcus is scheduled 9:00 to 5:30 with an unpaid 30-minute lunch. He badges in at 8:50 and out at 5:40 every day because the dock needs him. Payroll says it rounds to the quarter hour.
What was wrong (2):
- Hours paid, rounded. Real quarter-hour rounding takes 8:50 to 8:45 and 5:40 to 5:45. This system snaps every punch to the schedule, which isn't rounding at all. 29 CFR 785.48(b) allows rounding only when it averages out over time, and this one never favors him.
- Overtime hours. He actually worked 41.67 hours, so 1.67 hours of overtime at $27.00 is owed. That's $45.00 a week and about $2,340 a year.
More on this: Time rounding and the seven minute rule.
Round 3: the bonus that should have raised the rate
Priya earns $20 an hour, worked 46 hours, and hit the $40 weekly attendance bonus that's promised in the handbook.
What was wrong (2):
- Overtime, 6 h x $30.00. A promised bonus is non-discretionary, so it goes into the regular rate: ($920 + $40) / 46 = $20.87. Overtime is $31.30 an hour, not $30.00. That's 29 U.S.C. 207(e) and 29 CFR 778.208.
- Gross pay. The correct gross is $1,022.61. The $2.61 looks trivial, but it's every week for every bonus-earning worker, which is why audits find it.
More on this: How the overtime rate is actually calculated.
Round 4: the 401(k) that dodged Social Security
Lee earns $2,500 a pay period and defers 6% into a traditional 401(k). There are no other deductions.
What was wrong (2):
- Social Security wages. A traditional 401(k) deferral cuts income tax wages but not Social Security wages: IRC 3121(a)(5) and (v)(1)(A) put elective deferrals back in. SS wages should be $2,500.
- Social Security 6.2%. 6.2% of $2,500 is $155.00. Under-withholding $9.30 a period looks like a perk, but it shrinks Lee's earnings record, and the employer owes the shortfall anyway.
More on this: Pre-tax and post-tax deductions: which ones lower your tax.
Round 5: the assistant manager on $680
Jordan is an assistant store manager in Georgia, salaried and marked exempt, who works 52 hours most weeks. Most of the day goes on the register and stocking.
What was wrong (3):
- Salary, weekly. The federal salary floor for exemption is $684 a week, under 29 CFR 541.600. At $680 the exemption fails before anyone looks at duties.
- FLSA status. Even above $684, a primary duty of register and stock work fails the executive duties test. A title doesn't make anyone exempt.
- Overtime. Jordan is owed overtime on 12 hours. If the salary only covered 40 hours, that's 12 x $25.50 = $306 a week. Courts sometimes use the half-time method instead ($680 / 52 x 0.5 x 12 = $78.46). Either way it isn't zero.
More on this: Exempt and non-exempt: the three tests.
Round 6: the last paycheck in California
Sam was let go in San Diego on Friday 4 September 2026, with 32 hours of vacation accrued at $25 an hour. The final check arrived with the next regular payroll.
What was wrong (2):
- Accrued vacation, 32 h. California treats vested vacation as wages. Under Labor Code 227.3 it can't be forfeited, and the $800 must be paid at the final rate.
- Pay date. A fired employee in California is paid immediately, on the last day, under Labor Code 201. Fourteen days late runs up waiting-time penalties of a day's pay per day (Labor Code 203): about $2,800 here.
More on this: Final paycheck rules when you leave a job.
Final score: . Every one of these turns up in real wage claims. If one looked like your own stub, the linked page shows how to raise it in writing.
Sources: 29 U.S.C. 203(m) and 207(e); 29 CFR 541.600, 778.208 and 785.48; IRC 3121; California Labor Code 201, 203 and 227.3. Scenario figures use 2026 rates. Names and employers are invented.