First semi monthly paycheck not adding up to Gross salary

Question

I received my first pay-check, and I dont think the details are adding up.
Yearly salary: $85000
Semi-monthly salary expectation, before tax: $3541.67
Actual salary received before tax: $2897.73
After tax deductions: $2173.00
Is there something I am missing?

yoozer8 · Accepted Answer

You need to discuss this with your employer. There has been some sort of miscommunication resulting in your expectations differing from reality.
You expectation is an $85,000 annual salary, paid semi-monthly. You expect to be paid approximately $3,541.67 twice per month.
Your employer has paid you $2897.73. There are a few reasons that I (or anyone other than your employer) could speculate as the cause for this discrepancy:

Your employer intends to pay you bi-weekly, not semi-monthly, a salary of $85,000 annually, in the form of approximately $3,269.23 every two weeks. A miscommunication or some other mistake led you to believe you would be paid semi-monthly.
Your employer intends to pay you an annual salary of $69,545, paid semi-monthly as $2,897.73. A miscommunication or some other mistake led you to believe you would be paid $85,000.
You are correct that you will be paid $85,000 per year, semi-monthly. However, you did not begin working at exactly the beginning of a pay period, so your first paycheck only pays you for most but not all of a semi-monthly period, and is therefore less than a typical paycheck.
Something else entirely.

You need to ask your employer about the discrepancy; they are the only one who can explain why they paid you the amount they did.

mhoran_psprep · Answer

A couple of comments about being paid semi-monthly. This is based on being paid this way for 5+ years, and other co-workers and family members being paid this way.
Don't expect the paychecks to be the same every time. When somebody is paid every two weeks they expect they will get paid for 80 hours. So all the checks look the same. When you are paid twice a month the number of working days in that pay period vary. Depending on the month the pay period can be 10, 11, or 12 working days.  And in February there can be a 9 day pay period.
It gets even more confusing if you don't work 8 hours every day, but they still expect you to work 40 hours a week. So if the you leave an hour early on Tuesday, but work an  extra hour on Friday, and the week is split into two different pay periods; one will be short an hour, the other will have an extra hour.
That variation can sometimes cause withholding problems because the tax tables were created with the expectation the semi-monthly to work like 24 equal payments. So some employees can have over withholding on the 12 day pay periods, but under withholding on the 9 day pay periods.
For deductions set by value (insurance) that 9 day paycheck looks even smaller after a flat amount is removed. Care must also be taken with 401(k) because many let you pick either a fixed amount per check or a fixed percentage of each check. If you are trying to only have enough for the maximum match make sure it still works under the maximum and minimum paycheck. If you are trying to hit the annual limit the same caution applied.
A quick check of your numbers showed that based on your annual salary, you were paid for approximately 71 hours. That calculation was what reminded me of some of the semi-monthly pay issues. Now if you are salaried then you will find that most of the checks will be the same, except the first and last ones of your employment.

First semi monthly paycheck not adding up to Gross salary

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