BACKPAY CALCULATOR (FCHR METHOD)
Total WagesTotal InterestTotal Back Pay
User Guide
- Data Input: enter your data, as follows:
- Termination Date: enter the date you were terminated.
- Note: more generally speaking, this is the date in which your financial injury began
- Alternative: enter the date your salary was decreased/disparate/suppressed
- Judgment Date: enter the date that the judgment was entered.
- Alternative: enter the settlement date of your case (ie, the date your agreed-settlement went/goes into effect).
- Annual Wages: enter your annual salary/wages
- Note: if you didn't work an entire year then:
- determine the annual equivalent to your pay; and
- enter that number in the "Annual Wages" box
- Note: if you're only calculating pay disparity then:
- determine the difference between:
- what you should've been paid; and
- what you actually were paid.
- annualize that number
- enter that number in the "Annual Wages" box
- example: $1,000 = $50,000 - $49,000 (should've been paid 50k, but was discriminatorily paid 49k).
- Recommended Usage: you'll probably get the best user-experience if you use
Google Chrome
.
- Salary Changes/Offsets: if your wages/salary changed (or were offset by subsequent employment income) then do the following:
- separate this calculation into multiple parts.
- give each part the following inputs:
- (1) start date;
- (2) end date; and
- (3) annualized payout.
- enter each input into the calculator
- hit calculate
- record the outcome
- repeat steps 4b-4e for each wage/salary.
- Shortcuts: these keyboard shortcuts will run the calculation:
- {ENTER} will run the calculation (if you're inside a user input field).
- ALT+C will also run the calculation (from anywhere).
Calculation Info
- Simple Interest: The FCHR computes judgment interest with the simple interest methodology (ie, not the compound interest method).
- Also, the agency doesn't attempt to compound interest on top of past interest.
- Units: The FCHR uses weekly units and quarterly units to determine the proportional interest rates
- Weekly Rounding: The FCHR rounds the weekly units to the nearest one-half (eg, 6.50 weeks, 13.00 weeks)
- Quarterly Assumption: The FCHR treats each quarter as being thirteen weeks long (and one-fourth of a year)
- In other words, their calculation doesn't account for some quarters being longer than others (in terms of actual days)
- Base/Principal: The FCHR accumulates all past [would-be] paychecks to arrive at the base/principal.
- the base/principal is never increased by past interest.
- Weighted Average: The FCHR takes a weighted-average of all the judgment interest rates within a year.
- Interest Earned: For each year, the FCHR multiplies that weighted-average interest rate by the base.
- This product becomes the interest earned for the year.
- Totals
- Wages = accumulation of all past [would-be] paychecks. In the table (above), this is the last row in the "Base" column.
- Interest = sum of each year's interest. In the table (above), this is sum of each row in the "Interest Earned" column.
- Back Pay = Wages + Interest.
Notes
- Recency: The FCHR most-recently used this calculation method in August 2023.
- see Final Order 23-046 (Parsons v. McGee Tire; FCHR 2019-18423; DOAH 19-005134) (8/25/2023)
- also see Final Order 21-076 (Parsons v. McGee Tire; FCHR 2019-18423; DOAH 19-005134) (11/18/2021)
- as well as Final Order 18-038 (Logan v. Brow Art; FCHR 2017-00432; DOAH 17-005005) (8/2/2018)
- Rationale: The FCHR has not yet disclosed why it calculates judgment interest this way.
- On April 27, 2022, TBD asked the agency why it used this methodoogy.
- As of today's date, the civil rights agency has not responded. TBD will update this note when the FCHR answers.
- TBD has not yet found any statute/case law/regulation/policy that says interest should/must be calculated this way.
TBD's Commentary
- Mathematical Shortcomings: The Simple Interest Method has some well-known mathematical faults:
- Interest does not compound upon itself;
- Instantaneous Withdrawing-&-Depositing will impact earned interest;
- After about a year, simple earned interest will grow slower than compound earned interest;
- Earned interest is impacted by the calculation interval (ie, end-of-month calculation versus end-of-year calculation)
- Continued Revelation: this mechanical calculation method lends further insight into the war that civil rights litigation wages with theory, truth, facts, and logic.
- So, you should remain vigilant when recovering damages inflicted upon you by civil rights violations.
- vigilance against your civil opponent; and
- vigilance against the agencies/actors who've sworn to [supposedly] uphold your rights. (see 42 USC §1983)
- Useful: despite the shortcomings, this calculation method is still useful. In fact, in some instances, it will yield favorable results for the injured party.