State-Specific Paystub Details: Questions to Review by State

State law, not federal law, decides most of what a paystub must show. The FLSA requires no stub, but states such as California, New York, Oregon and Washington list required items, and they differ on rates, hours, employer contact details and electronic delivery. Review the work state's list first, then withholding, local taxes and retention.

That order matters because the questions build on each other. Once you know which state's statement rules apply, the rest follows: which lines the stub needs, which taxes appear, how it can be delivered and how long copies stay on file. This guide works through those questions, compares four states that publish detailed rules, and sets out a consistent core layout for employers with staff in more than one state.

Why the federal baseline leaves so much to the states

At the federal level, the Department of Labor answers the question directly: the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require an employer to provide pay stubs. What the FLSA does require is records. The regulation at 29 CFR 516.2 lists what payroll records must contain, from hours worked each workday to total wages paid each pay period and the date of payment, and 29 CFR 516.5 says those payroll records are kept for at least three years.

So federal law governs the employer's files, while the document the employee actually receives is left to the states. Many states have filled that gap with their own wage statement rules. Others say little or nothing. The result is a patchwork in which the same employer can owe different stubs to two employees doing the same job in neighboring states.

Wage statement rules in four states, side by side

The table summarizes what four states' own statutes and regulations say about the statement given with each payment. It is a comparison of highlights, not a complete restatement of any law, and the federal row is included as the baseline.

Where a cell says "not summarized here", the state may well have a rule; it simply was not part of the provision checked for this table, and the state agency named is the place to look.

Questions to ask about the work state before a stub is issued

Before building or checking a stub, answer these questions for each state where the employee works:

1. Does the state require a written or electronic statement with each payment, and does it list the items?
2. Must the stub show hours worked, and each rate with the hours worked at that rate?
3. Which employer details are required: legal name, address, phone number, a state business registry or ID number?
4. How must the employee be identified, and does the state limit how much of a Social Security number may appear?
5. Must deductions show their purpose as well as their amount?
6. Are allowances such as meals or lodging credited toward minimum wage, and must they be shown?
7. May statements be delivered electronically, and does the employee have to agree first?
8. What is the state minimum wage for the pay period, and does a city or county set a higher one?
9. Which state and local income taxes, and which state insurance or leave programs, produce deduction lines?
10. How long must payroll records and statement copies be kept?

Questions 1 to 7 decide the layout. Questions 8 to 10 decide the figures and the filing. For a refresher on the fields most stubs share regardless of state, see the overview of core pay stub fields.

The details that change most between states

Hours and every rate that applied

California's Labor Code 226 is the clearest example of a state that wants the arithmetic visible: the statement must show total hours worked and each applicable hourly rate with the hours worked at it. New York adds overtime rates and overtime hours for non-exempt employees, and Oregon's labor bureau lists regular and overtime rates and hours for non-exempt workers. A stub that shows only gross pay for an hourly worker falls short in all three.

Employer identification and contact details

States disagree on how an employee should be able to identify and reach the employer. New York's list includes the employer's phone number. Oregon asks for the employer's business registry or identification number along with address and phone. California requires the legal name of the employing entity, which can differ from the trade name the business uses day to day.

Deductions, their purposes and minimum wage allowances

Most state lists require all deductions. Oregon goes a step further by asking for the purpose of each one, which rules out a single "Deductions" line or a vague "Other". Oregon also asks for any allowances claimed as part of the minimum wage, such as lodging or meals, so an employer taking such a credit must show it on the statement.

Electronic statements and consent

Washington allows electronic statements when employees can access and copy them on payday, but an employee who cannot receive one at work or at home on payday gets a written statement instead. Oregon allows electronic statements only when the employee expressly agrees and can print or store them. Those conditions shape the delivery process as much as the stub itself.

Checking one stub against California's nine items

California publishes one of the most detailed lists, which makes it a useful test even for employers elsewhere. Labor Code section 226(a) requires an accurate itemized statement in writing, furnished semimonthly or at the time of each payment of wages, either as a detachable part of the check or separately. The nine items are:

1. Gross wages earned.
2. Total hours worked by the employee.
3. The number of piece-rate units earned and each piece rate, if the employee is paid by the piece.
4. All deductions.
5. Net wages earned.
6. The inclusive dates of the pay period.
7. The employee's name and only the last four digits of their Social Security number or an employee identification number.
8. The name and address of the legal entity that is the employer.
9. All applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period, with the number of hours worked at each rate.

The same section requires employers to keep copies of the statements for at least three years at the place of employment or at a central location within California.

Illustrative example (made-up figures): A California employee's rate rises from $18.00 to $19.00 halfway through a biweekly period in which they work 80 hours, 40 at each rate. A draft stub shows one line: 80 hours at $18.50, for $1,480.00. The total is right, because 80 × $18.50 = $1,480.00, and so is 40 × $18.00 + 40 × $19.00 = $720.00 + $760.00. But item 9 asks for each rate in effect with its hours, and $18.50 was never anyone's rate. The corrected stub shows two lines, 40 hours at $18.00 and 40 hours at $19.00, with the same $1,480.00 gross.

A consistent core layout for employers in several states

The practical answer to a patchwork is a superset: one layout with every field any of your states requires, used for everyone, with the same labels in the same order. A consistent layout makes stubs comparable across locations, makes errors stand out and keeps year-end reconciliation simple.

Illustrative example (made-up figures): A company employs 14 people in California and 6 in Oregon. Its core layout already carries 9 fields: employer legal name, employer address, employee name, employee ID, period dates, pay date, earnings lines, deduction lines and net pay. California adds hourly rates with hours per rate, and Oregon adds the business registry number, the employer phone number and the purpose of each deduction. Adding those 4 state items to the 9 core fields gives a 13-field layout used for all 20 employees. The California staff see an Oregon registry number they do not strictly need, which costs nothing, and nobody's stub is missing an item.

Keep formats consistent inside the fields too: one date format, one employee ID scheme and one set of deduction labels across every state. The labels are where multi-state stubs drift fastest, especially for state taxes and leave programs that have different names in different places.

Minimum wage changes that take effect January 1, 2027

State minimum wages change often, and many changes take effect on January 1. California's is confirmed for 2027. The Department of Industrial Relations lists the 2026 statewide minimum wage as $16.90 an hour, and its announcement dated August 13, 2026 sets it at $17.40 from January 1, 2027. The same announcement sets the minimum annual salary for employees exempt from overtime at $72,384 from that date. The DIR also notes that some cities and counties set higher local rates.

Illustrative example (made-up figures): A California employee paid the statewide minimum works 40 hours a week. At $16.90, a week's gross pay is 40 × $16.90 = $676.00. At $17.40 it is 40 × $17.40 = $696.00, so the first full week of 2027 shows $20.00 more. On a biweekly stub covering 80 hours, the difference is 80 × $0.50 = $40.00. If the pay period straddles January 1, the stub needs two rate lines, one at each rate, to meet California's requirement to show hours at each rate.

PayStubGo's California paystub page covers the state's statement details in more depth.

Withholding and local taxes that depend on where people live and work

Income tax lines add a second layer of state variation, because some depend on where an employee works and others on where they live. A few verified examples show how differently the rules are built:

• New York. The Department of Taxation and Finance says employers withhold New York City tax from New York City residents even when they work outside the city, and Yonkers tax from Yonkers residents wherever they work and from nonresidents on wages for work performed in Yonkers.
• Pennsylvania. Under Act 32, the Department of Community and Economic Development says the local earned income tax withheld is always the higher of the employee's resident rate and the nonresident rate for the work location. Philadelphia sits outside that system and has its own resident and nonresident rules.
• Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Under their reciprocal agreement, New Jersey's Division of Taxation says compensation of Pennsylvania residents employed in New Jersey is not subject to New Jersey income tax, and a Pennsylvania resident gives the employer Form NJ-165 to stop New Jersey withholding.

Labels for these lines vary widely between payroll systems, and the guide to local tax labels on paystubs sorts out which line is which.

Employees who move or work across state lines

A change of work location or home address can switch on a different state's statement rules, withholding and local taxes partway through a year. The Form W-2 is built for this: the IRS General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 give boxes 15 through 20 to state and local income tax information, so a year with more than one state or locality shows up there.

Remote work adds its own twists. New York's tax department, for example, says a nonresident whose primary office is in New York generally has telecommuting days counted as days worked in New York unless the employer has established a bona fide employer office at the telecommuting location. The remote employee paystub checklist covers what to confirm on their stubs, and the article on moving states midyear covers the switchover itself.

Retention periods differ between states as well

The same state-first logic applies after the stub is issued. Federal payroll records are kept for at least three years under 29 CFR 516.5, and IRS guidance sets at least four years for employment tax records. California requires copies of wage statements for at least three years, and New York requires payroll records for at least six. An employer with staff in both keeps the New York records longest. The article on record retention by type lays these periods out with their sources.

When a state has no wage statement law of its own

Not every state publishes a list like California's, and a state that has no statement statute does not leave the employer with nothing to do. The federal recordkeeping rules still apply everywhere the FLSA does, so hours, rates, deductions and wages paid must be on file under 29 CFR 516.2 whether or not a stub is issued.

For employers with staff in such a state, the consistent layout described above is still the simplest approach. Employees can check their own pay, questions get answered from the stub rather than from payroll exports, and nothing needs rebuilding if the state later adopts a rule or the employee moves.

Before concluding that a state has no requirement, check its labor department directly. The agencies behind the rules in this guide are good examples of where to look: California's Labor Commissioner within the Department of Industrial Relations, the New York State Department of Labor, Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries and Washington's Department of Labor and Industries.

Using state pages as a starting point, not a final answer

State summaries, including this one, are a place to start. Laws change, agencies publish new guidance, and a city ordinance can add a requirement no state list mentions. PayStubGo's state-by-state paystub pages collect state details in one place and let you build a stub from your own figures, which you preview before download; they do not track every local rule or confirm that a finished stub meets a particular law.

For any state where you pay employees, the state labor department publishes the wage statement rules, the state revenue department publishes withholding rules, and cities or counties with local taxes publish theirs. This article summarizes published rules for comparison and is not legal advice; confirm your obligations with those agencies or an employment attorney.

Related: State W-4: How State Withholding Certificates Work