What Is a Pay Stub? What It Shows, Section by Section

A pay stub usually shows who paid and who was paid, the pay period and pay date, each earnings line with rate and hours or salary, every tax and deduction, net pay, and year-to-date totals. Many stubs also carry an employee ID, a check or stub number and the pay frequency. Which items are required depends on state law.

Every item serves the same purpose: a reader should be able to tell who was paid, for which period, how gross pay was built, what came out of it and what was left. The sections below take each block in turn, with the labels you are likely to see and what to compare each one against.

A pay stub, block by block

Most stubs are built from the same seven blocks, whatever the layout. The table lists them in the order a reader usually meets them.

For a guided tour of the same blocks from the reader's side, the explainer on reading each section in order walks through a finished stub.

Employer and employee details

Most pay stubs name the employer or business, and many add its address, phone number and employer identification number. Together these identify who issued or prepared the payment record. For small businesses, contractors and the self-employed, the business details should match the name and address used on invoices and other records.

The employee block identifies the person paid, usually by name and address, sometimes with an employee ID. Some payroll documents show the last four digits of a Social Security number. Avoid anything more sensitive than the record genuinely needs: a full Social Security number, a date of birth or bank account details do not make a stub more useful, only riskier to store and share.

Pay period, pay date and frequency

The pay period shows the dates the payment covers. The pay date shows when the payment was made. These are not the same, and confusing them is one of the most common reasons a correct stub looks wrong.

For example, a biweekly period might run from Sunday, August 23 to Saturday, September 5, 2026, with pay arriving on Friday, September 11. The work ended on September 5; the money arrived six days later. A reader checking a deposit looks for September 11, while a reader checking a timesheet looks for the August 23 to September 5 range.

Many stubs also print the pay frequency, such as weekly, biweekly, semimonthly or monthly, and a check or stub number. The frequency tells the reader how to interpret salary amounts, and the number helps put a series of stubs in order, even when pay arrives by direct deposit.

Earnings: how gross pay is built

The earnings block shows how gross pay was calculated. Each line has a description and a current amount; hourly lines usually add the rate and hours, while salary lines show the amount for the period. Common line types include regular pay, overtime, salary, paid time off, holiday pay, bonus and commission.

Illustrative example (made-up figures): An hourly employee paid $24.00 an hour works 72 hours in a biweekly period, takes 8 hours of paid time off and earns a $310.00 commission.

• Regular: 72 × $24.00 = $1,728.00
• Paid time off: 8 × $24.00 = $192.00
• Commission: $310.00
• Gross pay: $1,728.00 + $192.00 + $310.00 = $2,230.00

Listing each earnings type separately lets a reader confirm every piece against its source: hours against the timesheet, time off against the leave record, commission against the sales report. One-off payments deserve the same treatment, and how a bonus is shown covers the usual ways a bonus line appears. Expense reimbursements are often listed apart from earnings, since many are not treated as wages.

Taxes and other deductions

Deductions reduce gross pay to net pay. On a typical US employee stub they fall into three groups:

• Federal withholding and payroll taxes: federal income tax, Social Security (often labeled OASDI) and Medicare.
• State and local taxes: state income tax where the state has one, and sometimes city, county or school district taxes.
• Benefit and voluntary deductions: health insurance premiums, retirement contributions, and items such as union dues or wage garnishments.

Labels vary a lot between payroll systems, which is why a line called "Other" or an unfamiliar abbreviation causes so many questions; the explainer on an "other deductions" line covers that case. Local taxes are especially inconsistent in how they are named, so the guide to local tax labels is worth a look if you see a city or district code.

Because deductions depend on payroll and tax rules, never guess an amount when preparing a stub. Take each one from payroll records, a previous stub or a benefits statement.

Net pay and the summary block

Net pay is what remains after every deduction, and it is usually the number people look for first. It should not be reviewed alone: check it against gross pay and total deductions so you know the three figures agree.

Illustrative example (made-up figures): Continuing with the $2,230.00 gross above, the deductions for the period are, with every amount assumed: federal income tax $212.00, Social Security $138.26, Medicare $32.34, state income tax $89.20, retirement contribution $111.50 and health insurance $64.00.

• Total deductions: $212.00 + $138.26 + $32.34 + $89.20 + $111.50 + $64.00 = $647.30
• Net pay: $2,230.00 − $647.30 = $1,582.70

A deposit of $1,582.70 in the bank confirms the summary. If the deposit differs, look first for a deduction missing from the stub or pay split between accounts.

Year-to-date totals

Year-to-date totals show cumulative amounts since the first pay date of the year: typically YTD gross pay, YTD for each tax, and YTD net pay. Some stubs also show YTD values for individual deductions or earnings types.

Each YTD figure should equal the previous stub's YTD plus the current amount. If the previous stub showed a YTD gross of $38,940.00, this stub's YTD gross should read $38,940.00 + $2,230.00 = $41,170.00. Copying the current period into YTD fields is only correct on the first stub of the year or with a new employer.

Optional items some stubs include

Beyond the seven blocks, many payroll systems print extras. None is universal, but each answers a question readers often have:

• Leave balances: paid time off or sick leave accrued, used and remaining.
• Hours year-to-date: total hours paid so far this year, alongside the dollar totals.
• Deposit allocation: how net pay was split between accounts, identified by a nickname or a masked account number rather than the full number.
• Taxable wage figures: gross pay after pre-tax deductions, sometimes shown separately for federal, Social Security and state purposes.
• Messages: a short note from the employer about a schedule or benefits change.

If a stub you rely on lacks one of these, the information usually exists elsewhere, such as in a leave portal or year-end tax form.

What a contractor payment record shows instead

Independent contractors are not employees, so a record of what a client paid them looks different from an employee stub even when it uses a similar layout. It usually names the payer and the contractor, the service period and the payment date, and describes the work by project or invoice number rather than as regular pay.

Withholding lines are often absent, because clients do not usually withhold income tax or Social Security from contractor payments. If a platform or agency kept a fee, the record should show the gross payment, the fee and the amount received as separate lines. Year-to-date totals, where included, are running totals of payments from that client.

Items that depend on your state

Federal law sets no general pay stub rule. According to the US Department of Labor, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to keep pay records but does not require them to give workers a pay stub. Many states fill that gap with wage statement laws that list what a statement must include, commonly hours worked, rates, gross and net pay, deductions and the pay period dates, and a few add items such as paid leave balances.

Because those rules change and differ from state to state, check your state labor agency for the current list. The questions to ask are covered in state-specific wage statement details, and PayStubGo's state paystub pages show how local tax lines appear for each state.

A quick check of any stub against this list

Whether you received a stub or prepared one, run through it once:

1. The employer and employee are both identified, with no unnecessary sensitive data.
2. The pay period and pay date are both present and make sense together.
3. Every earnings line has a description and amount, and the lines add up to gross pay.
4. Every deduction has a clear label, and the deductions add up to the total shown.
5. Gross pay minus total deductions equals net pay.
6. Each YTD figure is the previous YTD plus the current amount.

A stub that passes all six is complete in the everyday sense, though not necessarily in the legal sense for your state. PayStubGo formats the details you enter and is not a payroll or legal service, so confirm wage statement requirements with your state labor agency or an employment attorney.