HR Fast Facts: Why Are There Hours Showing on My Salaried Employee's Paystub?

Some payroll systems will automatically show hours on pay stubs for all employees. The hours can be automatically generated and not intended to reflect actual hours worked. Often, it is an automatic calculation based on assumed 8-hour work days.

Here is a breakdown of how the calculation could work:

There are 40 hours in a work week and 52 weeks in the year.

40*52= 2080 hours worked in a year

For semi-monthly pay frequencies, there are 24 pay periods for the year.

2080/24 = 86.67 hours per pay period

For bi-weekly pay frequencies, there are 26 pay periods for the year.

2080/26 = 80 hours per pay period

If there is a holiday or time off request, the automatic calculation may account for this and subtract the hours so it shows hours worked based on a per day proration.