After working hard for a pay raise, an employee was admittedly excited for their next paycheck — expecting it to be a significant increase. However, when it arrived, they couldn’t help but feel unsettled and opened their pay information to investigate.
In a Reddit post to the “Mildly Infuriating” forumthey admitted the math wasn’t adding up, so they reached out to HR.
However, when they responded, the employee was forced to set the record straight and point out their seriously lacking math skills.
“I emailed (them) after noticing the pay error,” the employee wrote in their post, “and this was their response.”
The screenshotted email revealed the breakdown of their HR department’s math, accounting for this employee’s new pay raise, but the calculations were completely wrong. This Redditor was forced to redo the math and prove their paycheck was lacking to get the additional compensation.
Sabrine_Heester_2001 | Reddit
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Paychecks, direct deposit, and any discussion of compensation in the workplace can be intimidating, even for a long-term employee — making situations like this anxiety-inducing even for people who aren’t confident in their math skills.
Considering only half of employees in the workforce regularly check their pay stubs, it’s also an issue that’s likely overlooked.
The email that revealed HR’s math error — dividing the pay raise instead of multiplying it — showed that their paycheck only accounted for an hourly raise of a few cents instead of the accurate $2.6.
Thankfully, HR eventually admitted they’d fixed the error after the employee called them out. What would’ve happened if he hadn’t noticed the error or simply assumed that HR’s math in their follow-up email was correct?
Does being trusting of the HR department or being unsure of your math abilities make you any less deserving of a pay raise you worked hard to achieve?
RDNE Stock project | Canva Pro
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Of course, it was clearly just an accident from an HR employee — which inevitably will happen every once in a while — but their response to investigating the problem was unsettling.
Great bosses should be advocating for their employees fair compensation, not forcing them to prove what they “deserve.”
“How your boss handles (pay errors) tells you everything you need to know about their character,” employment attorney Ryan Stygar explained on TikTok. “If they get frustrated at you for bringing up the mistake, or even act like you made the mistake, is not a good leader.”
Becoming the boss that people love and one who truly supports their team means more than being friendly — it’s about advocating for employees’ livelihoods, compensation, and time outside of work.
“The only way a boss should react if you’re not paid right is with urgency and empathy,” Stygar continued. “Anything less is not a leader worth putting your time into.”
You’re deserving of consistent, on-time, and in-full paychecks — without the burden of advocating for them yourself.
Your manager’s job is, in part, to manage your pay, even if it means resolving disputes or ensuring you’re being paid the correct wage.
At the very least, this Redditor’s experience should be a reminder to check your pay stubs regularly. You never know what you could be missing by simply trusting their process.
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Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories
