How to Check Your Grooming Paycheck for Mistakes

Commission pay has more moving parts than a flat wage, which means more places for a small error to slip in. Most are honest mistakes: a groom booked under the wrong name, a tip entered late, an add-on coded as retail. They are easy to fix when you catch them on the pay date and almost impossible to fix three months later.

Step by step

1. Match the revenue. Compare the commissionable revenue on your pay stub, or on the salon's commission report, with the total of your own logged grooms for the period.
2. Check the rate. Confirm the percentage applied is the one you agreed, including any tier you reached in this period.
3. Check the comparison. On hourly vs. commission pay, confirm you were paid the higher of the two, and that it was compared the way your agreement says, daily or for the whole period.
4. Check the hours. Hours on the stub should match the hours you worked, including time spent on redos or waiting for late pickups if your salon pays for it.
5. Check the tips. Card tips should appear in full. Cash tips you reported should show up as reported tips.
6. Check the deductions. Look for product or supply charges you did not expect, and make sure they match what you agreed to.

A worked two-week example

Say you groomed 42 dogs in a two-week period at a $65 average, for $2,730 of commissionable revenue. At 50 percent, commission is $1,365. You worked 80 hours at a $16 hourly rate, which is $1,280. On hourly vs. commission compared by period, you should be paid $1,365, plus your tips.

If the stub shows $1,332.50, the gap is $32.50, exactly half of one $65 groom. That is the kind of discrepancy to look for: an amount that matches one groom, one add-on or one tip.

The mistakes that show up most

• A groom missing from the commission report, often one booked under another groomer or rescheduled.
• An add-on recorded as a separate service that was not counted as commissionable.
• Card tips from the last day of the period landing in the next period, or not at all.
• The wrong tier applied after you crossed a threshold mid-period.
• Hourly vs. commission compared the wrong way for your agreement.

Raising it

Bring the specific dates, dogs and amounts, not a general sense that the check feels low. "Groom on the 14th, the Shepherd at $65, is not on the report" gets fixed. "I think I did more than this" usually does not. Keep it routine and unemotional; most payroll errors are corrected without fuss once they are pointed to exactly.

Keep your own record

All of this depends on having your own log to check against. The calculators on this site keep a day-by-day record of grooms, prices, hours and tips. With Pro you can export every week to a spreadsheet and hand it over when something does not match.

What to log so you can check

You cannot check a paycheck against your memory. Keep a simple record for every working day, written as you go rather than at the end of the week:

• Date, clock in and clock out times, and any unpaid breaks.
• Each dog by name or client, the service, and the price charged.
• Any add-ons, with their prices, listed separately.
• Any discount applied, and who applied it.
• Card tips and cash tips, kept apart.

A phone note works. So does a notebook at your station. The calculators on this site will hold the same details for you, day by day.

Work backward from the stub

Pay stubs often show the commission paid but not the revenue it was based on. You can recover that figure yourself: divide the commission by your rate.

In the two week example above, the stub showed $1,332.50 of commission. At 50 percent, that means the salon calculated on $1,332.50 ÷ 0.50 = $2,665 of revenue. Your log says $2,730. The $65 gap is one groom at your average price, which tells you exactly what to look for on the commission report.

Catching a wrong tier

Tier mistakes are worth a careful look, because they affect every dollar in the period rather than one groom. Say your agreement moves all of your revenue to 50 percent once you pass $2,500 in a pay period, and below that you are on 45 percent. You did $2,730, so you should be paid $1,365. If the payroll system still applied 45 percent, you would see $1,228.50, a difference of $136.50. A gap that is roughly 5 percent of your whole revenue, rather than the size of one groom, points to the rate, not a missing dog.

Checking a daily comparison

If your agreement compares hourly and commission each day, the check has to be done day by day. Take two hypothetical 8 hour days at $16 an hour, so $128 of hourly pay each day. On Monday you do $200 of grooms, which is $100 of commission at 50 percent, so hourly wins and you earn $128. On Tuesday you do $400, which is $200 of commission, so commission wins. Compared daily, the two days pay $328.

Compared across both days together, commission is $300 against $256 of hourly pay, so you would be paid $300. If your agreement says daily and you were paid $300, you are $28 short. The break-even guide goes further into how much this can add up to.

Discounts, redos and price changes

Commission is usually paid on the price the client was actually charged, so a discount at the front desk lowers your pay too. A $10 discount on a groom costs you $5 at 50 percent. That may be exactly what your agreement says, but if discounts are being applied that you did not know about, it is fair to ask how they are decided and whether your commission should be affected.

Redos and complaints are another place to look. If a groom was refunded or redone for free, check whether the commission was taken back, and whether your agreement allows that. Price increases matter too: if the salon raised prices, your commission should reflect the new prices from the date they took effect.

A five minute routine for every payday

1. Total your logged revenue, hours and card tips for the period.
2. Divide the commission on your stub by your rate and compare with your revenue total.
3. Compare the hours on the stub with your log.
4. Compare card tips with your log.
5. If anything is off, note the amount and see whether it matches one groom, one add-on, one tip or one tier.

Done every payday, this takes a few minutes. Done once a quarter, it takes an afternoon and the records are harder to match.

If a mistake is not fixed

Most errors are corrected once they are pointed out. If one is not, put your request in writing, with the dates and amounts, and keep a copy. If it still is not resolved, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division and your state's labor department handle wage complaints, and their websites explain what they cover. Overtime on commission pay is a particular area where rules are detailed and can vary by state, and the guide to hourly vs. commission pay covers the basics. This is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

What if my salon does not give me a commission report?

Ask for one. A list of the grooms credited to you, with prices, is the only way to match your pay to your work. If it cannot be provided, your own log becomes even more important.

How long should I keep pay stubs and my log?

At least until you have filed your taxes for that year, and longer is safer. A photo of each stub on your phone, saved alongside your log, takes up almost no space.

My card tips look low. What should I check?

First, whether tips from the last day of the period were carried into the next one. Then, whether any amount was deducted from them. If there is a deduction you do not understand, ask what it is, and check with the Department of Labor or your state labor agency if the answer does not satisfy you.

Should I raise a mistake of only a few dollars?

Yes. A small error that comes from a setting in the payroll system can repeat every period, and a few dollars every two weeks adds up over a year.

Keep reading

• Are Dog Groomer Tips Taxed?
• How Grooming Commission Actually Works
• All pay guides