Back ... to the Future

It was with little fanfare and expectation that I checked my bank balance this morning to find out how much I had been paid by my Second Employer.

Hmmm ... I wondered. $5.91? Was a cut off date missed? Was this cheque just for holiday pay? As luck would have it, I could pull up my pay stub on line. So I did.

I shook my head to clear the cobwebs and then rubbed my eyes. The pay stub told me that I had been paid for 13.5 hours. I had actually worked 14.75 hours, but still ... no matter what way you looked at it (and I looked at it many different ways), I should have netted more than $5.91.

Then I checked my rate of pay. I rubbed my eyes again. I brought my pay stub out to the kitchen so that My Son could bear witness to what I was seeing. I said, "Color me tired ... but am I reading this right? Did I actually get paid 50 cents per hour??"

Yes. I did. My gross pay was $12.25 (I earned a Sunday premium of a dollar per hour, equalling $5.50) and get this! They had the nerve to deduct $6.11 from my earnings.

I simply laughed. There was no other way to go. I thought to myself that the last time I was paid $.50 per hour, was my first babysitting job when I was 12 years old.

My employer just happened to call this morning and while I had him on the line, I asked if there were any problems with the payroll today. He said that there was nothing that he was aware of. So I went on to tell him that I had been paid at a rate of 50 cents an hour. 

He just laughed and said to frame that pay stub. He said 40 years ago maybe ... I had gone 'back to the future'.

I'm sure that it will not take much convincing to have my pay corrected. But just for the moment, I felt like I was 12 years old again. But at least my babysitting wages were free and clear. I don't know about this 50% rate of deductions. 

Going back to the future has got to come with more perks than this ...