AIBU to be annoyed at my first month's pay?

[clarabellabunting]

This might seem a bit of petty gripe but I started work in a new job on Nov 4th and have just received my first month’s pay. The day I started was a Monday and Nov 1st had been a Friday.

I checked with payroll about how the pay had been calculated and the response was that since I had started on the 4th, the way my pay had been calculated was:

Annual salary / 12 = normal monthly salary
Normal monthly salary divided by 30 days in November x 27 days = my pay for that month

My assumption was that it would be:
Normal monthly salary divided by 21 working days in November x 20 days worked = my pay for that month

Does it sound right to anyone else that weekends were included in both my 27 days I was paid for and my 3 days I wasn’t paid for? I’m not contracted to work weekends or paid for weekends. I am contracted to work 37 hours Monday-Friday.

I’m not sure if I want to make a fuss about it as I have just started. But it does make a difference of about £121 to my gross salary, which is annoying.

no, your initial calculation was incorrect.
I mad the same mistake. when I returned from maternity leave. I was so cross. With myself.
I asked to start on the first Monday. I wished I'd started on the 1st.
Very irritating.

Honestly, I think that the way they calculated pay is more normal, and it's horrible luck that the 1st was a Friday and you started on the Monday.

Having said that, I'm expecting a similar battle for DP who was due to finish on a Tuesday, but spent 2 days holiday to finish the Friday before. I think his company will pay him as if his official leaving day was Friday, thus not having to pay him the 2/30 for the weekend.

This is why I always leave a job on a Monday and start a new job on a Tuesday. HR is correct, you won't be effectively paid for the weekend before you start work.

If you'd started on the Friday, you wouldn't have expected to have been paid from the Tuesday.

Chunky did your partner give the Tuesday date as his final day of employment or the Friday (and therefore in effect give up his two days of leave)?

I guess it must be standard practice then?

I still don't understand it. If we aren't paid for weekends, why are they included in the calculation?

The way of calculating is the same as the nhs. I always hand my noticed in dated for the sunday, tho I finish on the friday. This way I get paid for sat/sun.

Holidaysarenice you've just blown my mind!

It is possible to hand your notice in to leave on a Sunday and be paid for the weekend?!

Why have I never heard about this before?

So we are paid for weekends then? (Even if we don't realise it?)

Why have I never heard about this before?

What? That you don't get paid for days that you weren't actually employed??
You start on Monday and ask why you weren't paid for the days before hand is like asking why you weren't paid for the first weekend in October. You weren't employed then.

The boot is on the other foot when you work for an employer that lets you buy holidays by sacrificing salary. It's calculated on the basis of working days then!

Vivacia - I didn't expect to be paid for any days I didn't work. I thought I would just get paid for the days I worked.

The concept of being paid for weekends at all is new to me! So taking weekends into account made no sense when I tried to understand the calculation.

It seems like everyone knew but me, though...

It was my impression that you just got paid for the working days in a month. So averaging out the monthly pay over weekends made no sense to me.

You started on the 3rd so they've paid you a proportion (i.e. twenty-seven thirtieths) of that month's salary haven't they? I can see how this may need explaining if it's the first time you've had a job which doesn't pay by the hour. I don't understand why, given you understood this, you can't understand why you weren't paid for the days before employment commenced.

I didn't understand that I had worked 27/30ths of the month though.

I thought I'd worked 20/21sts of the month.

In neither scenario would I expect to be paid for the remainder (ie the bit before I started).

Does that explain my confusion? I'm confused about weekends being included when I had never realised they were. Now I know.

So it turns out you're paid for weekends when paid a monthly salary - I never realised. Having worked in salaried jobs for over a decade I had always assumed you were only paid for the working days of the month.

Does your employer open for business at the weekend?

No

I think the answer to this lies in the difference between a wage and a salary. A wage is tied to the hour/days worked, a salary theoretically isn't. (Even though the employment contract for salaried jobs may state what days/hours you are expected to work.)

This happened to me this month, I returned from mat leave on the 4th. If I'd known I would have come back on the Friday or put a days holiday in, but like you I thought I would lose one days pay not three. I did check with payroll who said there are two ways a company can calculate wages when you don't start at the beginning of the month and mine did it this way. If they had done it another way apparently I would have got a slightly bigger wage.

At every company I have worked for, they used 1/260 of annual salary to calculate daily rate, then use that for the number of actual days worked. So pretty close to your 20/21 calculation. Am in private sector though. The policy is in our staff handbook - have you looked in yours?

I work in payroll, if you are on a mon-fri contract then the calculation they have used is incorrect.

You are right, the calculation should be based on working days only.

As a general rule, we use the following calculation for new hires who start mid month (with a mon-fri contract): annual salary / 260 (working days p/a) x days worked that month

Hope this helps.

Thanks - so I wasn't crazy to be surprised at the calculation then?

I am contracted to work 37 hrs over 5 weekdays (Mon-Fri). I'm definitely not contracted to work any of these hours over the weekend - nor could I if I wished to.

I wonder if this is a public sector / private sector thing? I'm working in the public sector and others who have commented on this thread from the public sector have experienced a similar thing?

There are different methods of calculating your daily rate, the most common are:

A) Annual salary divided by 365

B) Annual salary divided by 12, and divided by the number of calendar days in the month e.g. 30 in November

C) Annual salary divided by 12 and divided by the number of contractual days in month e.g. 21 in November

D) Annual salary divided by the number of contractual working days in the year e.g. 260 for an employee working 5 days per week

I would double check that your payroll have used the correct calculation if it is in your employee handbook.

I work in payroll and I use all of the above calculations for different companies, each uses a different method of calculating the employees daily rate.

What does your hand book say?

I work as a teacher and got stitched up by NOT being paid for the weekend before I went on ML. I struggled on until the Friday (my mat leave started on the Monday) thinking I'd be paid for the weekend. I got paid for 5 days instead of 7- so I got paid in the way you wanted to be and you got paid in the way I wanted to be!

When you're in a salaried position, you get paid for a calendar month.

The way they've worked it out I would class as correct. The original way you worked it out is just bizarre! That would never even occur to me.

DirtyDancing- that's what I'd assumed!