Pay Checks not adding up right Nebraska

[CBSAngie]

When i was hired at my current job last sept i was a "Independant contractor" taxes were not taken out of my paychecks until Jan of 2008. when i was put on salary, after a review i was granted a higher salary. which i was told would be effective on feb 16th.
So heres my problem, no matter if i work 70 hours in that pay week or 94 my paychecks are still the same. is something not right here?
i.e 1 pay period my salary was lets say 20,000 a year, i worked only 70 hours and after taxes i recieve 680.00 give or take a few cents, next pay period is when my rasie went into effect and i worked 94 hours at 22,000 a year with my paycheck being excatly the same amount as my previous one.

i went to website that calcualtes how much taxes will be taken out, the net pay they show is lower than what i get. nothing seems to be adding up for me, also i might add my company is a small business, and we do not have an accounting department, its the owners wife who deals with that. but many emails ive sent never make any sense.
am i thinking wrong here? i have never had a job where i am on salary, so i might be a bit confussed and sound really dumb please someone explain it to me.

And also my salary is what i gues sis considered salary exempt. if i work more than 40 hours a week they adjust my check so i get paid for that time, or if i work less they adjust it down

[GotSmart]

Salary: Fixed compensation for services, paid to a person on a regular basis.

40 or 90 hours. your check is the same. You are earning a salary, not an hourly wage.

[DAW]

"Salaried" can be either Exempt (no right to paid overtime) or Non-Exempt (right to paid overtime). The OP is apparently being treated as Exempt Salaried. I am going to include a webpointer to the white collar Exempt rules. There are actually many possible types of Exempt work, but these are the most common. I am going to ask the OP to see if any of these classifications apply, particularly Administrative and Executive. This would imply a weekly salary of at least $455/week.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/complian...irpay/main.htm

Alternatively, the OP can provide more information and we can collectively try to see if the Exempt classification looks reasonable. We would need to know the nature of the employer's business and the exact duties of the employee (job title per se does not legally mean much).

[CBSAngie]

Originally Posted by DAW

"Salaried" can be either Exempt (no right to paid overtime) or Non-Exempt (right to paid overtime). The OP is apparently being treated as Exempt Salaried. I am going to include a webpointer to the white collar Exempt rules. There are actually many possible types of Exempt work, but these are the most common. I am going to ask the OP to see if any of these classifications apply, particularly Administrative and Executive. This would imply a weekly salary of at least $455/week.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/complian...irpay/main.htm

Alternatively, the OP can provide more information and we can collectively try to see if the Exempt classification looks reasonable. We would need to know the nature of the employer's business and the exact duties of the employee (job title per se does not legally mean much).

well where i get confussed is i was told for the pay week i only worked 70 hours (instead of my full 80) my paycheck will be adjusted to macth my hours that i actually worked. and on the reverse side i was told that if i worked more than 80 hours a pay period, my check then would be incressed to pay me for the additional hours.

its a security company that i work for, we have local areas cops that work with us, my job title is "CBS Officer" (civilian based (unarmed) security) we are contracted out by diffrent companies around the area. the contract that i have is a permanent full time posistion (meaning the contract we have is for 10 years plus)
my duties include, camera survellience of 3 diffrent buildings in 3 diffrent locations, employee saftey, report writting, foot and vehicle patrols, responding to alarms, and emergency calls.

[Pattymd]

Sounds like a nonexempt job to me.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...=99921,00.html

[DAW]

Agreed. Non-exempt employees are normally paid an overtime premium for hours worked past 40 in the workweek. The "normal" rules for Non-Exempt Salaried employees (29 CFR 778.113) allow for docking of the salary for base hours not worked.

[Pattymd]

OP, did you mean 70 hours in the PAY period (for example, biweekly--every two weeks) or the workweek (a 7-consecutive day period)?

[CBSAngie]

in the pay period (biweekly)
Im pretty sure what happened was the rasie i got did not go into effect when i was told it did, and the orginal person i was dealing with in the office is a complete moron, i took it to her boss who told me this:

Salary is a consistent check regardless of the hours that you work in a
pay period. In companies where there is a 14 day pay period (pay on every
monday for example) the hours will directly correlate with the pay on that
pay period. The pay periods at the company happen to be the 1st and the
15th this creates confusion when there are 3 mondays in a pay period where
you may or may not work. The idea of a salary is that you will work about
2000 in a year or over a 52 week period (this includes your vacation time
that you accrue) so you can figure your hourly wage based on these hours
$21000 / 2000 hours equals $10.50 per hour. So you take the $21,000 and
divide that by 24 pay periods (2 per month) and you should be getting a
check of roughly $875 (before taxes) at every pay period. I would
recommend that you claim a lot of deductions (we can give you a new
form) This will reduce your taxes that are taken out of each check.
Based upon our conversations and my basic understanding of tax law and the
government relating to taxes you should not owe anything even if you claim
8-10 deductions (or more) on your W-4 form (this form tells us what you
believe the government should take from your check (I would suggest
between 8-11 for you based upon your dependents and other things etc.
This will reduce your taxes to roughly $50-$100 per pay period I would
suspect). This will maximize your left over take home pay and only reduce
your money back from filing taxes the following year. I hope that this
all makes sense. In summary every 2 weeks you will have a consistent
check based upon your hours per year divided by 24 (this is how salaries
are generally figured). The advantage of a salary will help you budget
for car, rent and other things knowing you have a consistent check even if
you take a couple of days of vacation Now if you would like to take additional hours out
side of the regularly scheduled hours at a comapny You will be paid in the form of bonus pay at $10 per hour
and that will be adjusted on your monthly checks based upon hours. I hope
that this is clear for you! If you have any more questions dont hesitate
to ask.

[DAW]

If you are paid twice each month (1st and 15th), that is what is called semi-monthly pay periods. When you are paid every other week, that is called bi-weekly.

You cannot legally be considered Exempt Salaried, because you are not being paid enough (even if all of the other rules are followed). One of the Exempt Salaried rules is being paid at least $455/week (you are being paid $437.50/week).

So by process of elimination, you must be Non-Exempt Salaried. That means (with a few exceptions) that you must be paid overtime for all hours worked past 40 in the workweek. Please note that I said workweek, not pay period. Overtime is normally calculated on a workweek basis, not a pay period basis.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs23.pdf

It is legal to dock the salary of a Non-Exempt Salaried employee for base hours not worked.

[CBSAngie]

thank you for your help,
it makes more sense now. for awhile i wasnt getting taxes taken out, so once they put me on salary it confussed me.

thank you everyone for your help!