Spreadsheet Math
When shortfall checks happen outside the platform, every exception depends on someone exporting, sorting, and rebuilding the calculation correctly.
Minimum wage make-up
Minimum/Maximum Wage Make-Up Calculation/Pay
Automatically detect tipped wage shortfalls, calculate the exact make-up amount owed, apply optional agreed-threshold top-ups, and send clean records to pay cards or payroll.
Wage shortfall engine
What Is Minimum Wage Make-Up Pay?
Minimum wage make-up pay is the amount an employer may need to add when a tipped employee's direct wages plus tips do not meet the applicable minimum wage threshold.
For restaurants, the hard part is not understanding the concept. It is catching every shortfall across changing shifts, tips, cash declarations, role rates, local wage floors, payroll exports, and same-day payout decisions.
PayDay Portal turns the process into a controlled workflow: combine time and earnings, calculate the effective rate, flag confirmed or projected shortfalls, separate legal make-up from optional top-ups, and preserve every calculation for payroll and audit review.
DetectShortfalls surface in Time Data and alarms.
CalculateMin make-up and optional max top-up stay separate.
DisbursePay to card or export to payroll with a clear trail.
How this fits: Minimum Wage Make-Up is the focused shortfall workflow. Tip Compliance applies the broader rule set, WageSync sends payroll-ready data, and Compliance Archive preserves the proof.
Make-Up Pay Workflow
Shortfall detection before payroll close
01
Combine the day
Timecards, base wages, credit-card tips, service charges, and selected cash-tip treatment are evaluated together.
02
Compare the threshold
The employee's effective rate is checked against the configured minimum wage threshold for the location.
03
Calculate make-up
The system separates minimum wage make-up from any agreed earnings-threshold top-up.
04
Pay or export
Amounts can be loaded to a pay card or sent to payroll with loaded and not-loaded balances intact.
The missed-pay gap
Why Wage Shortfalls Slip Through
Manual checks depend on managers stitching together timecards, tips, cash declarations, role rates, and payroll exports. That is exactly where tipped wage mistakes hide.
Multi-Job Days
Employees may work two roles in one day. PayDay Portal evaluates the daily earnings picture while still preserving job-level rows for payroll.
Late Discovery
Finding a wage shortfall after payroll runs creates reversals, manual corrections, employee frustration, and weaker documentation.
Two-tier calculation
Minimum Make-Up and Agreed Top-Up Stay Separate
The module separates the legally required floor from optional employer-defined earnings thresholds, so managers can see exactly why each dollar is being paid.
If your team calls this maximum pay, an agreed payout target, or a guaranteed earnings threshold, PayDay Portal treats it as an optional agreed-threshold top-up rather than mixing it into minimum wage make-up.
1
Effective Rate
Base wages and tip income are combined with hours worked to calculate the employee's effective hourly rate.
2
Minimum Wage Make-Up
If the effective rate falls below the configured wage threshold, the shortfall is multiplied by hours worked.
3
Agreed Earnings Threshold
When enabled, the system calculates the optional gap from the wage floor to the role or employee-level threshold.
4
Total Make-Up
Minimum make-up and agreed top-up are totaled, then tracked as loaded to card or not loaded for payroll.
Manager controls
Configure the Rule Once. Let the Platform Watch Every Day.
Location leaders control the thresholds, payment mode, cash-tip treatment, effective dates, and role-level ceilings without building a parallel spreadsheet.
Minimum Wage Detection
On/offControl: Enable wage-floor monitoring by location.
Result: Violation, provisional, and projected statuses appear in Time Data when thresholds are missed or trending low.
Max Threshold
OptionalControl: Set agreed earnings ceilings by role or employee.
Result: Managers see optional top-up amounts separately from minimum wage make-up.
Payment Mode
Card or exportControl: Choose Report Only or Pay to Card.
Result: Pay Out controls appear only when card loading is enabled; otherwise the amount stays in payroll export.
Cash Tip Treatment
ConfigurableControl: Decide whether declared cash tips count toward the effective rate.
Result: Unverified declarations can be tracked without affecting violation status when the operator chooses.
Effective Dates
VersionedControl: Apply new thresholds only from the selected date forward.
Result: Mid-period changes do not rewrite earlier closed calculations.
Example calculation
From Effective Rate to Total Make-Up
A server works seven hours, earns $14.91 in base wages and $42.00 in net tips, for $56.91 in total earnings. The effective rate is $8.13 per hour.
Minimum + optional top-up, separated
Effective Rate
$56.91 divided by 7 hours equals $8.13 per hour. That is the rate the system checks against the configured wage threshold.
Minimum Make-Up
If the location threshold is $15.00 per hour, the shortfall is $6.87 per hour. Across 7 hours, minimum make-up is $48.09.
Agreed Top-Up
If the server's agreed threshold is $22.00 per hour, the optional top-up is $7.00 per hour after the wage floor is satisfied.
Total Make-Up
$48.09 minimum make-up plus $49.00 agreed top-up equals $97.09 queued for Pay Out or payroll export.
Audit proof
Every Make-Up Decision Is Traceable
The page a manager uses to act is the same workflow that creates the proof: threshold, hours, wages, tips, make-up amount, payment status, export status, and user action.
Calculation History
Effective rate, threshold, shortfall, min make-up, max top-up, and total make-up stay attached to the employee record.
Configuration Logging
Threshold changes, toggle changes, payment mode changes, and effective dates are logged for manager and owner review.
Loaded vs Not Loaded
Amounts sent to a card and amounts left for payroll disbursement are separated so no dollar disappears between systems.
Export-Ready Reports
Payroll-ready files include min wage, max threshold, min make-up, max make-up, total make-up, loaded, and not-loaded fields.
Live detection
See Confirmed, Provisional, and Projected Shortfalls
Managers do not wait for a payroll report to learn there is a problem. Time Data and Alarms surface the status while there is still time to review and act.
Violation
All shifts for the day are closed, tip data is final, and the effective rate is below the configured threshold.
Provisional
Credit-card tips or final source data have not settled yet, but current numbers indicate a likely shortfall.
Projected
A shift is still in progress and the employee is trending below threshold based on current day data.
Actionable Alarm
Confirmed shortfalls can trigger alerts with employee name, amount, and shift context for manager review.
Pay Out workflow
Load Make-Up Pay to Card or Send It to Payroll
Operators choose the disbursement workflow by location. Managers can pay immediately where card loading is enabled, or keep the amounts in export data for payroll.
Review the Breakdown
Each employee row shows hours, min make-up, max top-up, and combined total before any payment action.
Load One Employee
Managers can send a single make-up payment to the employee's pay card and see the button move to loaded state.
Load All
At close, managers can batch-process all outstanding make-up payments in one controlled action.
Report Only
When payment mode is Report Only, card loading controls stay hidden and make-up pay flows through payroll export.
Payroll-ready records
The Export Already Knows What Payroll Needs
Make-up pay fields travel with the period data table, so payroll teams can process loaded and not-loaded amounts without manually rebuilding the calculation.
