Georgia Paystub Generator

Reading a Georgia pay stub, line by line

A Georgia pay stub carries exactly four involuntary deductions — and in 2026 the state one changed mid-year. Here is what each line means:

GA State Income Tax ("GA SIT", "Georgia Withholding"). Georgia's income tax is a flat 4.99% for tax year 2026, after a $15,000 standard deduction for single filers ($30,000 married filing jointly) and $5,000 per dependent — no personal exemption. But the rate you see depends on the pay date: House Bill 463 cut the rate from 5.19% to 4.99% retroactive to January 1, and the Department of Revenue told employers to keep withholding 5.19% until May 11, 2026 and switch to 4.99% from that date. Stubs from January to early May therefore show the old rate; the over-withheld difference comes back on the 2026 return. (The 5.09% figure floating around comes from the earlier HB 111 schedule, which HB 463 superseded.)

Withholding math (DOR percentage method). Subtract the standard deduction for your Form G-4 status and $5,000 per dependent — both spread across pay periods — then multiply by 4.99%. DOR's own example: semimonthly $2,000, married with one spouse working and one child → (2,000 − 1,250 − 208.33) × 4.99% = $27.03. No G-4 on file means single with zero allowances. Bonuses are withheld at the same flat rate.

What you will NOT see: any city or county income tax — O.C.G.A. § 48-7-140 has banned local income taxes outright since May 20, 2010 — state disability insurance, a paid-family-leave premium (Georgia has no program), or an unemployment deduction: the Georgia Department of Labor's employer handbook says UI taxes "cannot be deducted from the wages of any employee."

New for 2026–2028, on the return rather than the stub: the first $1,750 of overtime pay for full-time hourly workers and the first $1,750 of cash tips are excluded from Georgia taxable income. Withholding doesn't change; you claim it when you file.

Plus the federal lines on every US stub: federal income tax, Social Security (6.2% up to $184,500 in 2026), and Medicare (1.45%, plus 0.9% on wages over $200,000).

Georgia paycheck facts — 2026

What you actually take home in Georgia (2026 estimates)

Estimated for a single filer taking the standard deduction, including federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and Georgia income tax at the 4.99% rate after the $15,000 state deduction:

Where the money goes at $60,000: Georgia income tax $2,246 (3.7% of gross); federal income tax and FICA take the other 16%. Stubs dated before May 11, 2026 withheld about $32 more at the old 5.19% rate over that January-to-May stretch — that comes back as a refund. If the 2027 step to 4.865% survives the revenue trigger, the same earner keeps roughly $56 more.

Hourly workers: the new $1,750 overtime and $1,750 tip exclusions are worth up to $87 each in Georgia tax at 4.99% — small, but claimable on the 2026 return.

Methodology: 2026 federal brackets and $16,100 standard deduction (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32), FICA per SSA, Georgia flat 4.99% (O.C.G.A. § 48-7-20 as amended by HB 463) after the $15,000 single standard deduction (2026 Employer's Withholding Tax Guide, Table E). Estimates only — your withholding depends on your W-4/G-4 elections, credits, pre-tax benefits, and whether the pay date fell before or after May 11, 2026.

What Georgia jobs pay (BLS, May 2025)

Georgia's median hourly wage across all occupations is $23.16 — about 5% under the national median of $24.51 and a touch below Texas ($23.38). The $8.99 waiter median (tips included) is the third-lowest on this site, behind Louisiana's $7.25 and South Carolina's $8.83 — a direct product of the $2.13 tipped cash wage.

Georgia's workforce in numbers

• 11.3 million residents, civilian labor force of 5.5 million, unemployment 3.3% (Census 2025 estimate; BLS, July 2026 preliminary)
• 1,163,944 self-employed (nonemployer) businesses (Census, 2023) — about 4.5 for every business with employees, and roughly a fifth of the labor force earning without an employer pay stub
• 4.4 million people on employer payrolls at 261,320 establishments, earning $280 billion a year (Census County Business Patterns, 2023)
• Mean annual wage: $65,920 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)

Georgia pay rules — the answers people actually need

Final paycheck: Georgia has no statute. Unlike almost every neighboring state, Georgia law sets no deadline for final wages after you quit or are fired. The practical rule is the next regular payday; if it passes unpaid, the Georgia Department of Labor's own advice is to file with the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division under the FLSA or sue in Magistrate Court. No law requires severance or a payout of unused vacation — that depends entirely on company policy.

Pay frequency: at least semimonthly (O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2) for manual, mechanical, and clerical workers; salaried officials and department heads may be paid monthly. Weekly and biweekly schedules are fine. Payment can be cash, check, or direct deposit with your consent.

Is a pay stub required? No. Georgia has no law requiring an itemized wage statement — one of the few large states without one (Texas, by contrast, requires a full earnings statement). Employers still must keep FLSA records of hours, straight-time and overtime pay, deductions, and total wages each pay period, and DOR requires them to retain W-2s and G-4s for four years. If you need proof of income and your employer doesn't issue stubs, those records — and your bank deposits — are what you have.

Georgia DOL does not enforce wage and hour law. Minimum wage, overtime, and unpaid-wage complaints go to the federal Wage and Hour Division; the state agency handles unemployment, child labor, and new-hire reporting.

Minimum wage in Georgia — the $5.15 that almost never applies (2026)

Georgia's statutory minimum wage is $5.15 an hour (O.C.G.A. § 34-4-3, last amended in 2001) — one of the two lowest on the books anywhere. It applies only to employers outside the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the state law itself exempts employers with five or fewer workers, sales under $40,000, tipped employees, students, farms, and domestic workers. For virtually everyone, the federal $7.25 governs, with a $2.13 cash wage for tipped staff. No Georgia city or county sets its own rate.

The market floor is far above $7.25 in metro Atlanta — retail salespersons post a $14.83 median statewide — but the legal floor hasn't moved since July 2009. A January 2026 Senate committee report recommended making the first $50,000 of income tax-free from 2027; that is a proposal, not law.

How Georgia compares with its neighbors (take-home on $60,000, 2026 est.)

Georgia's generous $15,000 deduction keeps its 4.99% competitive with the Carolinas at $60,000 — the state costs about $360 more than North Carolina and roughly $150 less than South Carolina. The no-income-tax pair to the north and south (Tennessee, Florida) keep about $2,250 more.

(The Alabama figure is a directional estimate pending that state's full data workup.)

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