Should monthly salary be identical every month? Why might it not be?

CuriousOrange7

Hi

My girlfriend and I both work full time receiving salary monthly. There is nothing (I know of) remotely unusual about either of our employment contracts.

However, my girlfriend's monthly pay, income tax, NI, employer NI, taxable income etc. are all identical from month to month. But mine all fluctuate in a seemingly random manner (doesn't appear to be based on number of days or working days in the month, the fluctuations seem too small to be related to days anyhow).

Whilst I do expect the fluctuations to even out in the end (haven't been there a full year to confirm this) though so far I am slightly under the "correct" amount i.e. annual salary divided by 12.

So is this normal? What are some likely legitimate reasons for the fluctuations? (I don't want to kick up a fuss for no reason!)

Which would be more normal, exactly even amounts or slight fluctuations? 

Tucosalamanca

Slight fluctuations, NI can vary a little from month to month (20p seems typical on my monthly pay run).
You also have recent chancellors tweeting contribution rates, which again means that take home pay isn't always consistent throughout the year.

amanda1024

Do the NI, income tax etc look correct based on the monthly pay? I think you’d need to ask payroll how monthly pay is calculated. Is there any overtime, sick pay, anything like that?

SiliconChip

An occasional variation of 20p, as mentioned by @Tucosalamanca, is pretty normal in my experience. If that's not what you're referring to then we'd really need to see figures to be able to make any guess as to the cause.

Marcon

CuriousOrange7 said:

Hi

My girlfriend and I both work full time receiving salary monthly. There is nothing (I know of) remotely unusual about either of our employment contracts.

However, my girlfriend's monthly pay, income tax, NI, employer NI, taxable income etc. are all identical from month to month. But mine all fluctuate in a seemingly random manner (doesn't appear to be based on number of days or working days in the month, the fluctuations seem too small to be related to days anyhow).

Whilst I do expect the fluctuations to even out in the end (haven't been there a full year to confirm this) though so far I am slightly under the "correct" amount i.e. annual salary divided by 12.

So is this normal? What are some likely legitimate reasons for the fluctuations? (I don't want to kick up a fuss for no reason!)

Which would be more normal, exactly even amounts or slight fluctuations? 

Surprised your girlfriend's pay has stayed the same every month, when employee's NI reduced in January this year from 12% to 10%.

A few pence here or there is normal, due to rounding errors.

What sort of amounts are you talking about?

chrisbur

Tucosalamanca said:

Slight fluctuations, NI can vary a little from month to month (20p seems typical on my monthly pay run).
You also have recent chancellors tweeting contribution rates, which again means that take home pay isn't always consistent throughout the year.

NI will only vary if rates or levels have been changed any 20P variation is for tax.  Here pence are ignored untill they build up to make a full pound.

chrisbur

CuriousOrange7 said:

 so far I am slightly under the "correct" amount i.e. annual salary divided by 12.

This suggests to me that you are referring to gross pay; if that is the case only your employer can advise.  
If it is the net that varies will need details of a couple of consecutive payslips to see what is happening.
Taxable gross
Tax paid
Tax code
NI paid 
Cumulative figures for Taxable gross Tax 
Month number

JJG

Are you paid hourly or a salary?