Your Paycheck

May 7th, 2015

Warm Up

1. About how much is each class period in high school actually worth for you?
2. How could viewing a job as short-term rather long-term change how you act on the job?

Learning Objective:  Students will understand how to be financially responsible.

Success Criteria: Students will be able to read and explain their paychecks.







Today we're going to learn how to read and understand our paychecks to make sure that we are getting paid what we're supposed to be getting paid.

We'll also figure out why your gross income and your net income are different.

Let's look at this example from your packet.

You get paid differently depending on if you work overtime (more than 40 hours a week or 8 hours a day) or not.  

You also get money taken out of your check for payroll deductions such as:

1. federal income tax - Money taken from your check and given to the federal government to pay for services it provides like the military, food stamps, Congress & the President’s salary, etc
2. state income tax - Money taken from your check and given to the state government to pay for services they provide such as aid to local schools, police/fire departments, road building, etc.
3. medicare tax - Money taken from your check to pay for basic medical care for the elderly and the disabled
4. social security tax - Money taken from your check to provide some income to people too old to work or people with disabilities

Other payroll deductions could include union dues, insurance costs, retirement plans, etc.

The difference between the amount you earned and the amount you actually get to take home and use to pay your bills and meet your wants and needs creates the difference between gross income (the amount you earned) and net income (the amount you actually get to keep)

Complete pages 6 & 7 of your packets using the booklet.

DO NOT WRITE ON THESE BOOKLETS!!!!!

DO NOT TAKE THESE BOOKLETS OR PACKETS WITH YOU!!!

Electronic copies of both can be found on the class blog under the packets section over there.