Employees see difference in paychecks

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - On Friday, Mary Howald will notice a difference in her paycheck.

"Kinda stinks, working just as hard and making less," she said.

But don’t blame her employer.

“It’s unpleasant. I don’t like having to take money away from people,” said Linda Cassity, who handles human resources for Howald Heating, Air, and Plumbing in Broad Ripple.

She doesn’t have a choice.

Cassity has adjusted the paychecks of all 33 employees after Congress decided not to extend the two percent payroll tax cut almost every American worker has enjoyed the last two years.

New in 2013, the payroll tax rate returned to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent.

For a household earning about $51,000 a year, the change means about a thousand dollars a year less in pay or about a twenty dollar hit to your paycheck each week.

“At certain income levels, two percent is a good chunk out of your paycheck," said Shawn Antell, a partner at Sherck Hussey Johnson and McNaughton Certified Public Accountants.

Antell said the lower tax rate was never meant to be permanent.

"But you can get used to living on an extra two percent pretty quickly."

"That's a Friday night out to dinner that we like to do once a week,” said Howald. “So we're going to have to cut back a little bit in those extra areas."  

Cassity said other employees will feel the impact, too.

“There are more and more people all the time that are paycheck to paycheck,” Cassity said. “It's just a hard pill to swallow right now."