Why is my weekly per diem paycheck now $0? Federal tax suddenly higher than hourly rate - help!

This sounds like a payroll withholding issue, not an actual tax rate problem. The federal tax rate didn't suddenly jump high enough to consume your entire hourly wage. Most likely, your employer's payroll system is calculating withholding incorrectly for your situation. Since you only work one hour per week, the system might be applying a full-time withholding calculation to a very part-time situation. Payroll systems often annualize your income (multiply it by 2080 hours) to estimate your yearly earnings and withhold accordingly. If something changed in how your employer classifies you or processes your paycheck, it could trigger this issue. Your best solution is to submit a new W-4 form to your employer with additional withholding allowances or even claim "exempt" if you expect to have no tax liability. You can also speak directly with payroll (keep trying!) to explain the situation and ask them to adjust their calculation method for your unique schedule.

I had almost the exact same problem last year with my weekend hospital gig! After trying to fix it myself for weeks, I finally used taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to analyze my pay stubs and W-4 setup. The site basically scanned my documents and identified that my employer had accidentally classified me as a full-time employee in their system even though I was per diem. The analyzer showed that the payroll system was calculating my taxes as if I made $2,600 per week instead of $50, putting me in a much higher withholding bracket. Once I understood the problem, it was easy to get fixed with HR. They have this document analysis tool that spots these kinds of payroll mistakes right away.

Ok I need to apologize for my skeptical comment earlier about taxr.ai. After another week of getting zero dollar paychecks, I got desperate enough to try it. Uploaded my last 3 paystubs and within minutes got a detailed report showing my company was applying a supplemental income tax rate (22%) to my entire hourly wage instead of just to bonuses or overtime. The analysis showed exactly which box on my paystub contained the error code that was causing this. Took a screenshot to HR and they fixed it immediately - apparently it was a system-wide glitch affecting other per diem workers too! Just got my backpay yesterday. Not something I could've figured out by just googling tax brackets like I suggested.

Hey there! Reading your post reminded me of when I was dealing with payroll issues at my weekend job. After weeks of getting nowhere with HR, I finally used Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to get through to an actual IRS agent who clarified the withholding rules for per diem workers. Their system got me connected to a real person at the IRS in under 15 minutes when I had been trying for days on my own. The IRS agent explained that employers often miscalculate withholding for very part-time workers and gave me the specific regulation to reference with my employer. They also explained how to file for a refund of over-withheld taxes if my employer couldn't fix it retroactively. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - saved me so much time compared to waiting on hold for hours.

Ok so I'm back to eat crow. After my skeptical comment yesterday, I was still getting nowhere with my own payroll issue (similar to the original poster), so I reluctantly tried Claimyr. Not gonna lie, I was 100% ready to come back and blast them when it didn't work. But... it actually worked exactly as advertised. Got a text about 20 mins after starting the process, jumped on the call, and was literally talking to an IRS agent. They confirmed that for very part-time work like one hour per week, the withholding calculation often gets messed up in payroll systems. The agent gave me specific language to use with my employer about "adjusting withholding for irregular period employees" under Publication 15-T. Showed my employer and they fixed it immediately. Sometimes being wrong feels pretty good!

Have you checked if they accidentally changed your filing status in their system? Same thing happened to me - I was suddenly getting tiny paychecks because payroll somehow changed my W-4 filing status from Single to Married Filing Separately, which completely messed up my withholding calculations. Worth checking if something similarly weird happened in their system!

Just a heads up - if you're working per diem, check to see if they started actually paying you the per diem as a separate line item instead of an hourly rate! When this happened to me, my company switched from paying one hourly rate to a lower hourly rate PLUS a per diem amount. The per diem portion is usually non-taxable, but the change in how it was structured totally messed up my withholding percentages.