Pay Stub Decoder Skill

Most people can't explain a third of the lines on their own pay stub — which is exactly how errors survive for years. This skill decodes every line, shows the gross-to-net waterfall, and runs the error checklist: wrong withholding status, benefit deductions that don't match elections, missing overtime, and the retirement match that quietly isn't there.

What This Skill Produces

• Line-by-line decode — every earning, tax, and deduction in plain English
• The waterfall — gross → taxes → pre-tax deductions → post-tax → net, with percentages
• The error checklist — run against the user's stated situation, discrepancies flagged
• Payroll fixes — what to raise, with the wording

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if not provided:

• The stub — lines and amounts (redact identifiers freely; the codes and numbers are what matter)
• The expectations: stated salary/rate, hours if hourly, benefit elections (retirement %, insurance tier), filing status
• Jurisdiction — tax lines and mandatory deductions vary by country/state; never guess
• What prompted this — "smaller than expected" gets a targeted diff, not just a tour

Framework

1. Codes to English: payroll abbreviations (the cryptic 6-character kind) decoded by pattern and context; anything genuinely ambiguous gets flagged ask payroll what this code means rather than guessed.
2. Pre-tax vs post-tax matters: the waterfall shows where each deduction lands, because a pre-tax dollar costs less than a post-tax one — and misclassified deductions are a real error class.
3. The five common errors: withholding status not matching filing reality · benefit deduction ≠ elected amount · missing/mis-multiplied overtime · retirement contribution or employer match absent or mismatched · state/locality taxes for the wrong place (remote-work classic).
4. Annualize the surprises: a $38 mystery deduction is $988/year — every finding shows both numbers.