What Is a Paystub? Every Field Explained for New Employers

The top of a paystub identifies the employer (name, address, and often the EIN), the employee (name, address, sometimes the last four of the Social Security Number), and the pay period (start date, end date, and pay date). The pay date is what matters legally: that is the date on which the compensation is considered earned for tax purposes.

The earnings section breaks pay into categories. A single hourly employee might have one line, "regular"; a more typical stub has separate lines for regular hours, overtime, holiday, PTO, bonuses, and commissions. Each line shows the hours (if applicable), the rate, and the amount.

Gross pay is the sum of every earnings line before any tax or deduction. This is the number lenders and landlords ask about when they say "gross".

Every paystub shows federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and (in most states) state income tax withheld from the current period. In some states there are also local taxes: city taxes, school district taxes, or occupational taxes on top of the state line. All of these come out before net pay.

• Federal income tax: calculated from the W-4 the employee submitted
• Social Security: 6.2 percent of gross pay up to the annual wage base
• Medicare: 1.45 percent of gross pay, no cap
• Additional Medicare: 0.9 percent surtax on wages above the IRS threshold
• State income tax: varies by state

Deductions are anything that comes out of the paycheck that is not a tax. Pre-tax deductions (like traditional 401(k) contributions and most health insurance premiums) reduce taxable income before withholding is calculated. Post-tax deductions (like Roth 401(k) contributions, garnishments, and union dues) come out after withholding.

The order matters. A pre-tax deduction affects the tax lines above it; a post-tax deduction does not.

Net pay is what actually lands in the employee's bank account: gross pay, minus every tax, minus every deduction. This is the number that has to match the direct deposit.

Every current-period line is mirrored by a year-to-date (YTD) column that sums the same category across every paystub in the calendar year. YTD is what employees use to sanity check their W-2 in January, what lenders look at when a stub arrives mid-year, and what auditors reconcile against Form 941.

A stub without YTD totals is legally acceptable in most states but is a significantly less useful document. Any modern payroll system produces YTD by default.

Some stubs also list employer-paid items separately from employee items: the employer share of FICA, retirement plan matching, and the employer share of health insurance. These do not reduce net pay; they show the total cost of the compensation package.