It's the taxes, Stupid!!!!

I am working more and making less. I'm a part-timer, paid hourly, so I also haven't got a lot of things full-timers and official "part-timers" get at my place of employment.

First what I do get as a paid employee:

1. Staff discounts on books ordered through the library

2. Spring water in the water cooler

3. Overtime for Sunday hours

4. Evening hours (which may or may not be an actual "benefit", now that I think about it)

5. Sometimes first dibs on best-sellers, if we manage to read about it in Publisher's Review or other magazines available to us before they go public - that is , if they're processed immediately.

Well, that's about all I can think of in positive terms at the moment...

Now - things other employees get as either full time or part-time, as opposed to "hourly", and I don't:

1. Paid sick leave

2. Paid vacation

3. Paid Holidays

4. Comp time, when desired, for working on holidays

5. Auto-deposit of checks

6. Pension

7. Health benefits

8. Union support (of course, they do pay dues, but...)

9. COLA raises (cost of living allowances) - it's supposed to "trickle down" to us hourly wage earners... I got a 51¢ increase after about 3 years....

10. An attitude that will let them leave the desk when they feel like it... Of course, some of the hourly employees have that attitude, too, but they have pensions, benefits, etc. elsewhere....

And that's in addition to the benefits I also get...

So you can understand why I am a bit perturbed that when I put in five hours more in one pay period - part of which was overtime - than in the previous one and I get only $1.33 more. The director essentially said, "It's the taxes, Stupid" - of course, being a bit more kind and not calling me "stupid". I may try to figure out the percentage differences, but it's quite a jump. At 39 hours, no overtime, the feds take $14.08. At 44 hours, 3 hours overtime, they take $111.55. The differences in other withholding is not as bad - NJ tax goes from $6.73 to $8.37, for instance...

I am lucky that my DH currently works, since I gross under $10,000 a year. Thank God, his work also includes health insurance and dental insurance - since I now discover I have a hole in one of my back teeth. I just went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago - the tooth apparently broke.

So, I've gotten that out of my system - at least until the next pay period, when I'll have two Sundays on it- wonder how much more they'll take of that? Working more I may get even less....