How to read a pay stub, section by section

Pay stubs look different from one employer to the next, but nearly all of them follow the same order: who and when at the top, what you earned and what came out in the middle, and what you were paid at the bottom. Most money lines have two columns: Current (this pay period) and YTD (the year so far).

This guide walks through each section using one example: $25.00 an hour for 80 hours, paid biweekly, filing single, working in Texas in 2026, with a 5% traditional 401(k) and $50.00 a paycheck for health insurance.

The header: employer, employee and reference numbers

The top of the stub names the employer (business name and address) and the employee (name, address, and an employee ID or the last 4 digits of the Social Security number). You may also see a check number, a department or a clock number. Check that your name is spelled correctly and your address is current, because payroll uses the same details for your W-2.

Many stubs also print the filing status used for federal withholding. If it's wrong, or your situation has changed, give your employer a new Form W-4. You can fill one in free with the W-4 builder.

Pay period and pay date

The pay period is the stretch of days the paycheck covers. The pay date (or check date) is the day you were paid. The pay date decides which year the money counts toward: a paycheck for the last two weeks of December that's paid on January 8 belongs to the new year, and to the new year's W-2.

How long the period is depends on how often you're paid: weekly (52 paychecks a year), biweekly (26), semimonthly (24) or monthly (12). Biweekly and semimonthly sound alike but give different paychecks; see biweekly vs semimonthly pay.

Earnings

Each earnings line usually shows the type of pay, the hours, the rate, the current amount and the YTD amount. Regular pay is hours × rate, or for a salary, the annual amount divided by the paychecks in a year.

Overtime gets its own line. Under federal law, non-exempt employees get at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, so at $25.00 an hour each overtime hour pays $37.50. Other lines you may see include holiday, vacation or PTO, sick pay, bonus, commission, tips and retroactive pay. Add them all up and you get gross pay. The guide to hourly vs salary and overtime has more examples.

Pre-tax deductions

Pre-tax deductions come out before some or all taxes are figured, so they lower your taxes as well as your take-home pay. They don't all work the same way:

That's why the example shows federal tax figured on $1,850.00 ($2,000.00 minus both deductions) but Social Security and Medicare figured on $1,950.00 (minus only the health insurance). More in pre-tax vs post-tax deductions.

Taxes

• Federal income tax (often FIT or FWT). Based on your pay, your W-4 and the IRS withholding tables. It's the line most likely to change when your pay or your W-4 changes.
• Social Security (SS or OASDI). 6.2% of wages up to the yearly wage base, which is $184,500 for 2026. After that it drops to zero until January, so the most one employer withholds in 2026 is $11,439.00.
• Medicare (MED). 1.45% of all wages, with no cap. Employers also withhold an extra 0.9% on wages over $200,000 in a calendar year, whatever your filing status.
• State income tax (SIT). Withheld for the state where you work. A handful of states, including Texas and Florida, don't tax wages.
• Local income tax (LIT, or the name of a city). Some cities, counties and school districts tax wages too.
• State disability and paid leave (SDI, FLI or PFL). Small payroll deductions in states that run these programs, such as California, New Jersey and New York.

Your employer also pays taxes on your wages: a matching share of Social Security and Medicare, federal unemployment tax, and in most states all of the state unemployment tax. None of these come out of your pay. Some stubs list them for information, often marked ER (employer).

After-tax deductions

After-tax (post-tax) deductions come out once taxes are figured, so they don't change your tax. Common ones are Roth 401(k) contributions, wage garnishments, child support orders, union dues and charitable giving through payroll.

Net pay

Net pay is gross pay minus every tax and deduction. In the example, $2,000.00 minus $100.00, $50.00, $138.15, $120.90 and $28.28 leaves $1,562.67. That's the amount that should land in your bank account or be printed on your check. With direct deposit, the stub may say "non-negotiable" and show the last digits of the account the money went to. If your pay is split between accounts, each one is listed.

Year-to-date columns

The YTD column is the running total for each line from January 1 through this paycheck. If the example is your 10th paycheck of the year with the same pay each time, YTD gross is $20,000.00 and YTD net pay is $15,626.70. YTD is how payroll knows when to stop Social Security, and it's what lenders look at to judge whether your income is steady. The full explanation is in what YTD means on a pay stub.

At the end of the year, your last stub's YTD figures should line up with your W-2. Box 1 is usually lower than YTD gross, because pre-tax deductions such as a traditional 401(k) aren't included in it.

What to check every payday

• Hours and rate match your timesheet or offer letter.
• Overtime is on its own line at the right rate.
• Deductions match what you signed up for.
• The work state is right, and the filing status matches your W-4.
• Each YTD figure grew by exactly this period's amount.
• Net pay matches what you received.

If something's off, tell your payroll or HR contact quickly: errors are easier to fix in the next paycheck than at year end. If a code on the stub is unfamiliar, look it up in our list of pay stub abbreviations.