I just got paid for the first time (well, except for my summer job but it worked differently) for my first part time job and I'm a bit confused.

The pay day was on the 7th and I worked from Nov 24th-Dec 5th for a total of 35.5 hours. I get paid $8/hour so my total should be $284... but when i checked my history in my bank account it says that my work place only gave me $161.05? That's a $122.95 difference...

They probably didn't calculated it from Nov 24th-Dec 5th because I think the main company does the payroll and stuff... But I heard that there are like taxes and stuff they take out and I don't get it until i do my taxes?

Can someone explain how payroll works?

(I don't fell it's the right time to ask my manager or anyone because she's going to come back from vacation soon to find out that some expensive items were stolen from the store =_=;; So she'll be pretty angry and I don't want to fan the flames with asking about how I'm getting paid...)