Payslips : spot unpaid hours and the amount owed
UK itemised payslip rights under ERA section 8: what must appear on or before payday, when hours must be shown, and how a thin payslip helps prove underpayment.
Payday arrives. The bank credit looks light. You open the payslip and the hours column is blank, vague, or simply lower than the rota you worked. Or there is no payslip at all.
That document is not a courtesy. Under UK law, most workers have a right to an itemised pay statement. When pay varies with time worked, the hours behind the variable pay must appear on the slip. A missing or incomplete payslip is often the first hard clue that you were underpaid.
In short
- You should get an itemised payslip on or before payday, in print or electronic form you can print.
- The slip must show gross pay, net pay, variable deductions (and fixed ones, subject to the rules), and hours where pay varies with time worked.
- From April 2019, the right applies to workers, not only employees (with limited exclusions).
- Hours that never appear on the slip, or hours that do not match your rota, are evidence you can use in an unpaid wages or National Minimum Wage dispute.
- Most pay claims still have a tribunal time limit of 3 months minus 1 day (as at September 2026). From 1 October 2026 that becomes 6 months minus 1 day if the clock starts on or after that date.
What the law requires (ERA section 8)
Section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 gives a worker the right to a written itemised pay statement at or before the time wages or salary are paid.
The statement must include:
- the gross amount of wages or salary
- the amounts of any variable deductions, and (subject to section 9) any fixed deductions, and the purposes for which they are made
- the net amount payable
- if different parts of the net amount are paid in different ways, the amount and method of each part-payment
- where wages or salary vary by reference to time worked, the total number of hours worked in respect of that variable amount, either as one aggregate figure or as separate figures for different types of work or different rates of pay
GOV.UK’s payslips page puts the same rules in plain language: earnings before and after deductions; changing deductions such as tax and National Insurance; and hours if pay varies with time worked. Fixed deductions (for example a season ticket loan) can be explained on the slip or in a separate written statement given before the first payslip and updated each year.
Employers may issue printed or electronic payslips. Electronic is fine if you can print them. Timing matters: the slip must arrive on or before payday, not weeks later when you have already spent what landed in the account.
Who gets a payslip
From 6 April 2019, the right was extended to all workers, not only employees. GOV.UK payslip guidance (BEIS/DBT) on the 2019 legislation (still hosted on GOV.UK) explains that the change covers pay periods beginning on or after that date.
GOV.UK lists people who do not have to receive a payslip in the same way, including:
- someone who is not an employee or worker (for example some contractors or freelancers)
- people in the police service
- merchant seamen
- masters or crew in share fishing
If you are unsure whether you are a worker, Acas and GOV.UK both have status guidance. The payslip right follows worker status, so getting that label right matters.
When hours must appear on the slip
This is the rule many hourly and overtime-heavy roles live or die by.
Hours must be shown when the amount of wages or salary varies by reference to time worked. GOV.UK payslip guidance (BEIS/DBT) gives clear examples:
- Hourly worker: all hours paid on a time basis for that pay period must appear (as a total, or broken down by rate).
- Salaried worker with paid overtime: basic salary hours need not appear; the overtime hours that created the variable top-up must appear.
- Salaried worker with no variable time pay: no hours figure is required on the slip.
- Day-rate worker: pay varies with time worked (by the day), so hours still need to be shown.
- Term-time worker paid equal monthly instalments: equal instalments mean pay does not vary with time worked for this purpose, so hours need not appear.
- Unpaid leave or SSP cutting a fixed salary: that kind of departure from normal arrangements does not, by itself, turn fixed salary into “pay that varies with time worked” for the hours-on-payslip rule. But if you are paid by the hour and still worked part of the period, the hours you did work still need to be shown.
The hours on the payslip are a transparency rule. They are not automatically the same figure HMRC would use for every National Minimum Wage calculation. Still, for someone paid by the hour, the two often line up in practice. If the slip shows 28 hours and your rota shows 34, you already have a concrete dispute.
GBP example: hours missing from the slip
You are 28 and paid £13.20 an hour. In one week you work 38 hours. The rota and clock-in both show 38. The payslip shows 32 hours and gross pay of:
32 × £13.20 = £422.40
What you should have been paid for time worked (gross):
38 × £13.20 = £501.60
Gross shortfall: £79.20
That gap is not abstract. The itemised slip is supposed to show the hours behind variable pay. A slip that understates hours is both a possible breach of the payslip rules and evidence for an underpayment claim. Keep:
- the rota or app screenshot
- any message confirming the extra shifts
- the payslip PDF or paper copy
- the bank credit for that payday
Lead with hours and the contractual rate. Payroll can rebuild tax and National Insurance; you need the gross hours first.
What a tribunal can do about a bad or missing payslip
GOV.UK payslip guidance (BEIS/DBT) explains enforcement separately from a wages claim. If you did not receive a payslip, or it lacks required information, you may bring an employment tribunal claim. If the tribunal agrees, it must make a declaration. It may also order repayment of unnotified deductions made in the 13 weeks before you presented the claim, even where the employer was otherwise entitled to make those deductions.
That remedy is about transparency failures. It is not a substitute for claiming the wages themselves if you were underpaid. For unpaid wages or unauthorised deductions, you use the wages routes under the Employment Rights Act (and Acas Early Conciliation first for most tribunal claims).
How payslip gaps help prove underpayment
Think of the payslip as one column in a four-column check:
- Contract / written statement - rate, pay frequency, overtime terms.
- Hours evidence - timesheets, rotas, clock data, messages.
- Payslip - what the employer says was paid and deducted, and (where required) hours.
- Bank statement - what actually arrived.
When column 3 omits hours that belong there, or shows fewer hours than column 2, you can show a clear delta. That supports:
- an unpaid wages or unauthorised deductions argument
- a National Minimum Wage check (divide pay that counts for NMW by hours that count for NMW for the pay reference period; from April 2026 the main rate for workers aged 21+ is £12.71 an hour on GOV.UK)
- a grievance that HR cannot brush off as “feeling underpaid”
If you never received any slip, GOV.UK and Acas still expect you to ask. Write to payroll or your manager, keep a copy, and diary the payday that triggered the problem.
Dual tribunal time limits in 2026
As at 7 September 2026, Acas says most claims (including many pay claims) have a limit of 3 months minus 1 day from the date the problem happened. For pay, that is usually the date you were not paid correctly.
From 1 October 2026, the limit for most claims becomes 6 months minus 1 day, but only if your time limit starts on or after 1 October 2026. See Acas employment tribunal time limits.
Notifying Acas for Early Conciliation in time can pause the clock while conciliation runs. A grievance does not pause it on its own. Do not wait for a “full investigation” of a missing hours line if the calendar is closing.
Common traps
- “We’ll email the slip next week.” The legal timing is on or before payday. Chase the same day.
- Assuming salary means no hours ever. Overtime paid by the hour still needs those overtime hours on the slip.
- Trusting net pay alone. Net can hide wrong hours. Check gross and the hours figure.
- Throwing away old slips. Patterns of missing overtime hours are easier to prove with a run of documents.
- Mixing the payslip claim with the wages claim. Fix transparency (declaration / unnotified deductions) and recover the money (wages / NMW) as linked but separate tracks if needed.
- Waiting for a verbal fix. Put the shortfall in writing with a simple hours × rate calculation.
Soft next step with Paye Mes Heures
If you want a calmer way to line up rotas against payslips before you email HR or notify Acas, Paye Mes Heures can help you estimate what looks unpaid and build a clearer dossier (hours, rates, payslip gaps, a running shortfall). It is a preparation aid, not a substitute for Acas Early Conciliation, legal advice, or an employment tribunal decision. Use official GOV.UK and Acas pages alongside it.
Your payslip should let you see the hours you were paid for and the money taken off. If it does not, treat that as evidence, not as a paperwork annoyance.
Sources
Payslip hours guidance on GOV.UK (originally BEIS; now Department for Business and Trade / DBT)