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Your Paycheck Doesn't Match the Quote. What Now?

Put the pay stub next to the written offer, find the exact line that differs, and send your recruiter that difference in writing with a request for a corrected payment. If it stays wrong, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division and your state labor office take wage complaints, and federal law bars an employer from retaliating against you for complaining.

By ProTherapy Staffing, published October 22, 2026.

What should you check on the pay stub first?

Check each line against the offer: hours paid, the taxable hourly rate, each stipend, and every deduction. Then check what the offer said about the week itself, such as contracted hours, a short first week, or a shift the facility cancelled. A short week can change the numbers without the rate changing at all.

Your employer has to keep the numbers you are checking. The Department of Labor's recordkeeping fact sheet lists, among the records employers keep for non-exempt workers, the “Regular hourly pay rate,” “Total wages paid each pay period,” “All additions to or deductions from the employee's wages,” and the “Date of payment and the pay period covered by the payment” (DOL: recordkeeping under the FLSA).

How should you raise it with your recruiter?

In writing, with four things: the pay period, the line as quoted, the line as paid, and the difference. Attach the written offer. Ask when the correction will be paid and whether it will appear as its own line, so you can check it when it arrives.

If the difference is in a deduction, ask what the deduction is for and where the offer mentions it. A deduction the offer never listed is worth raising before the next pay period, while the first check is still easy to trace.

Your recruiter may not run payroll, but getting the problem to the people who do is part of the job. Keep the thread. If the next check repeats the error, the dated thread is your record that you raised it and when.

If you want a package written line by line so every pay stub can be checked against it, ask a ProTherapy recruiter: Find my next contract.

Is a missing stipend treated the same as missing wages?

Not under federal wage law. The Fair Labor Standards Act “establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards” (DOL: the FLSA). Expense reimbursements sit outside your wage rate: federal regulations say payments to cover such expenses “are not included in the employee's regular rate (if the amount of the reimbursement reasonably approximates the expense incurred)” (eCFR: reimbursement for expenses).

So a quoted housing or meals stipend that was not paid comes down mainly to what your written agreement says. A quoted hourly rate that was not paid is unpaid wages. Either way, the written offer is the document you point to, which is why it should exist before your first day.

Check overtime on the hourly side. The Department of Labor says: “Unless exempt, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay” (DOL: overtime pay). Because reimbursements that approximate expenses stay out of the regular rate, compare any overtime line with the taxable rate on your offer, not with the weekly total.

Who can you complain to outside the agency?

The Wage and Hour Division takes complaints by phone and online, and says: “Many investigations are initiated by complaints, which are confidential.” It adds that “The name of the complainant, the nature of the complaint, and whether a complaint exists may not be disclosed” (DOL: how to file a complaint).

How often you must be paid is set state by state, and the Department of Labor publishes a table of state payday requirements. For pay you were promised above the federal minimums, your state labor office is the place to ask; the Department keeps a list of state labor offices with contact details for each. Before you file anywhere, gather the written offer, the pay stubs involved and your thread with the recruiter.

Can the agency hold a complaint against you?

Federal law says no. The Department of Labor states: “An employer cannot retaliate against a worker for exercising their rights, filing a complaint or cooperating with an investigation.” Its retaliation fact sheet adds that employees are protected “regardless of whether the complaint is made orally or in writing,” and that “most courts have ruled that internal complaints to an employer are also protected” (DOL: prohibiting retaliation under the FLSA).

In most courts' view, then, the email to your recruiter about a short check is a protected complaint too, not only a complaint to a government office.

Frequently asked questions

How long must an agency keep my payroll records?

The Department of Labor's recordkeeping fact sheet says each employer shall preserve payroll records for at least three years.

Is a wage complaint to the Department of Labor confidential?

The Wage and Hour Division says complaints are confidential, and that the name of the complainant, the nature of the complaint and whether a complaint exists may not be disclosed.

Does federal law require the rate my recruiter quoted?

Not directly. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and youth employment standards. A quoted rate above those floors rests on your written offer, which is why the offer should be in writing before you start.

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