Confused on my salary - HELP!

[Baspay]

I need some help understand my wages for this month.

I started a new job, just finished my 4th week. Pay day is 22nd of the month, I started on the 24th of the month. My salary is £30k but expected to clear around £25k after tax etc.

I got my first pay today and was expecting around £1900ish. Instead I got £2,500. I thought something had gone wrong and they didn’t tax me on it, but when I had a look I have had £258 tax deducted, £116 national insurance deducted, £162 pension deducted and £32 back pay deducted. That’s all by deductions which left me with £2,500.

BUT before the deductions it’s showing my wage as £3,086. Just for this month???! Including something called ‘basic pay (back pay)’ at £544. Why would I get back pay as a new employee?

im really confused what any of this means, and not sure if I should contact the hr and ask, but equally don’t want to trigger them into taking back some of my money lol

You really need to ask your work. Nobody here is going to be able to tell you for sure. The sooner you ask the sooner it is sorted.

You need to check with work because if they find out later you were over paid they'll blow it back.

At least being paid is better than not being paid at all like I was as no one told payroll id actually started as my line manager was off ill and no one had gotten the email prompting it.

It will be full pay for July plus back pay for June 24th-28th

Without knowing if you are in Scotland or England (tax), and only working off of your basic salary.

If you commenced on 24/06/24 and your pay day is the 22nd of the month, then you 'missed' the payroll cut off point to be paid for June. Therefore for July's pay, paid on the 22nd, you have been paid for hours worked from 24/06/24 until the end of the month in addition to your July salary payment.

The 'Back Pay' detailed on your wage slip will be how they have processed your June salary to be paid in July basically. As back payment for a period already passed.

Hope this helps.

don’t want to trigger them into taking back some of my money lol

It's unlikely they won't realise if it's a mistake and you would have to pay it back.

If you think it's a mistake raise it, don't be dishonest.

It might be you for paid for calendar months is you've had the whole of July plus the few extra days you worked in June?

My employer pays for calendar months but we get the money on the 28th.

Likely this. I get paid on the 25th of the month or even a couple of days earlier if the 25th is on a weekend, but it's for the whole month, even the week I haven't earned yet.

So you've been paid for all of July, plus the few days of June that were too late to pay you on the June pay day.

So in August, you should get a standard month's pay although, depending on what you earned between April and June, it might take a while for tax deductions to settle down into a constant amount.

I agree with @Loobieloogold . The backpay is for June, and the rest is for one entire month.

Yeah, you’ve been paid for the whole of July plus “backpay” for the dates you worked in June.