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Notice Your Paycheck Getting Smaller?

By Heather VacLav

Story Created: Jan 23, 2013

Story Updated: Jan 24, 2013

Did you notice fewer dollars in your first paycheck of the new year? It's the first glimpse of how Congress' fiscal cliff fight affects Americans from all walks of life, including many Alabamians.

Budgets are going to be a bit tighter this month, as the end of the payroll tax cut takes effect, already trimming our paychecks.

"It's ridiculous I could use those $30 to put in my gas tank," said Dlaiia Yi who lives in Montgomery. 

The higher tax in question helps fund Social Security because two years ago the government gave most of us a tax break to help the economy.

"This is taking money out of the employee's paycheck, but it is also taking money out of the employers bottom-line," said Herman Wesley, the minister at  North Point Church of Christ in Montgomery. "And we have to match whatever the employee is doing."

The change will cause most of us to take home two-percent less than last year.

So if you make $50,000 a year, you'll earn $38.46 less per pay bi-weekly check, which is $1,000 less overall in 2013.
     
"But it's really bad, it is not approved by us working people, I can tell you that," Lakesha Chappelle of Montgomery, said.

Join the conversation about how the end of payroll tax cuts is affecting you on our Facebook Page.

For more on what to expect in your paycheck, you can read the Internal Revenue Service's new guide here and the Tax Policy Center's tax calculator here.
 

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