Receiving a raise at work is an event all employees look forward to, which is why one worker was stunned to find their paycheck had only increased by 3 cents.
While every cent counts, it’s clear that 3 cents won’t make a huge difference in covering expenses.
The surprised employee took to Reddit’s ‘mildly infuriating’ forum to share their story, revealing they contacted HR after noticing the insignificant raise and suspecting an ‘error’.
Expecting a 10 percent increase from their hourly wage of $26.35, the employee found this was not the case in their pay slip.
When they approached HR, the team defended their computation and shared their reasoning.
The HR team explained: “I am writing to confirm that your 10% pay raise was applied to your pay during the work period from August 11 to August 25. Your new hourly rate is $26.38.”
Clearly, $26.38 is far from a 10 percent rise from $26.35.
Nevertheless, HR persisted with their explanation:
“Previous pay rate: $26.35
“New pay rate calculation: $26.35 (1 + 0.10/100) = $26.38.”
Can you spot the mistake? Other Reddit users certainly did.
In response, one user remarked: “What baffles me is they didn’t go ‘hmm, 3 cents increase? That can’t be right!'”
Another pointed out: “So HR is either wildly incompetent at math, or they know damn well what they’re doing and hope it’s the employees who are wildly math-illiterate.
“OP should get in touch with finance dept. if possible, maybe they could teach HR a bit of 3rd-grade math.”
For clarity, including for the HR department if they’re reading, the calculation provided was correct; it just wasn’t the correct method for a 10 percent increase.
To achieve a correct 10 percent increase, as many Reddit users noted, they should have multiplied $26.35 by 1.10, resulting in a new rate of $28.985, or $29 if rounded up.
Another user suggested an even simpler method: “Or literally just move the decimal. what is 10% of $26.35? $2.635. So add that.”
It’s unclear if the employee was able to convince HR of their mistake, but hopefully, they didn’t wait long to receive the appropriate raise!