Social Security tax from my check?

Question

I am waitressing while in college and my first few checks had about $5 taken for social security while the last one had $35 taken even though I worked approximately the same hours. What happened?

Answer 1

Social security is taken out based on your hourly earnings AND tips. You either reported your tips to your employer (as you are supposed to do every month) and your employer withheld money from your regular wages to pay for the SS on the tips, or your employer allocated tips to you (they do this when you don't report your tips) and took out money from your regular wages to pay for the SS on the allocated tips.

Answer 2

Socal Security tax is two parts FICA 6.2% & MC which is 1.45%. This combined 7.65% is taken out of your hourly wage and your reported tips. So if you make $65 in you hourly pay that would be about $5 in SS tax. But if your hourly rate and tips add up to nearly $400 that would be $35 in SS Tax.

Answer 3

Are you sure it wasnt your federal withholding? If it is your social security deduction, go to the bookeeper at your restaurant with your pay stub--(ALWAYS keep your stubs, people are human and they make mistakes). Show him/her the variation in deduction and I can assure you, a mistake was made. You are talking 7X greater than the first deduction making the same amount of money. Good luck honey.

Answer 4

Your social security should be 6.2% of your gross pay (including reported tips). Medicare is 1.45% of your pay. Get a calculator and see if you can get the same numbers as your pay stub. If one of the numbers is wrong, go to your employer for the correction.

Answer 5

They could have entered your tips into the calculation on this check.

Answer 6

The increase in pay may have been enough to bump you into the next tax bracket.