<prompt> Human: Hi all,I just started at a new company and I was hoping I could get some help understanding my exemptions and allowances on my paycheck. When I first started working I began in the middle of a 2 week pay cycle so my first paycheck was only for 1 week, 40 hours and the allowances for that paycheck was Federal:0 allowances and CA:1 allowance. I just looked at my most recent paycheck stub which was for 2 weeks, 80 hours Federal:1 allowance and CA:1 allowance and I noticed my deductions are quite different than my first paycheck. I thought that having more allowances means having less tax taken from each paycheck except I had more money taken out of my second paycheck than my first. So for example lets say my first paycheck for 1 week of work netpay is 1000 with Federal:0 and CA:1 and my second paycheck for 2 weeks of work netpay is 1800 with Federal:1 and CA:1. It was my understanding that in my second paycheck my netpay should be a little more than 2000 because I have more allowances now and because 0 allowances means the max amount of tax is withheld so 1 allowance means I should have less tax taken out.However, everything listed under deductions is exactly double the amount in my second paycheck except for Federal Income Tax which was more than double the deductions and CA State Income Tax which was more than 3 times more. My question is, how come my second paycheck had more deductions taken out compared to my first paycheck even though I had more allowances in my second one?Thanks  <response>: Ill take a guess. You may have a payroll that uses biweekly paychecks and withholds presuming you get 26 paychecks a year. The first paycheck was for half as much as you will typically earn, so the withholding that happens got tricked into thinking your salary is half what it really will be for the year. So a lot less was taken out as withholding. So much so that it even trumped the 0 allowance being used instead of 1. 