What Is A Pay Stub & What Should It Include? (2024)

Small Business Expert Writer

Updated: Oct 20, 2022, 2:00pm

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A pay stub is given to employees along with their paychecks. The stub is something the employee can use to confirm what funds were withheld from the gross pay that led to the final net pay amount. There is no federal law that requires employers to provide employees with pay stubs, though most states do require employers to provide a pay stub.

Each pay stub should have some basic elements that are commonly found on all pay stubs. Pay stubs typically include the amount per pay period and a year-to-date value.

Here’s what pay stubs typically include:

• General information: The pay stub should have basic identifying information that includes the name and address of the employer, the name and address of the employee and the employee’s Social Security number.
• Pay period: The pay stub should define the days that the payments are attributed to and list the total hours worked.
• Gross wages: This is the total amount earned for the pay period noted as pre-tax dollars. If the employee worked 15 hours at $20 per hour, their gross wages would be $300. You note hours worked, the pay rate, any additional earnings and accrued time off.
• Tax deductions: There should be a line identifying each tax withheld from the check to include federal tax withholding, state tax withholding, unemployment taxes, Social Security tax and Medicare withholdings.
• Employee benefits deductions: Show what was withheld for the employee to make certain contributions to health insurance, health savings accounts, life insurance payments and retirement contributions.
• Voluntary deductions: This line item on the pay stub lists the amount an employee chooses to withhold monthly and might include something such as a regular charitable contribution.
• Involuntary deductions: These are wage garnishments and might include something such as taxes owed or court-ordered child support payments.
• Net pay: The amount of money that the employee will take home after all deductions are made.

Pay stubs can vary in style, so it’s best to learn the basic elements of the pay stub to be able to decipher what you’re looking at.

Example A

This is a simple pay stub that has all the elements required in the pay period.

Example B

This is a detailed pay stub that includes employee contributions.

Example C

A common way that pay stubs are presented to employees.

Most payroll providers will create the pay stub for you when processing your payroll. When using a paid or free payroll tool, you’ll enter in the required information in each area of the pay stub. Remember that the withholding amounts for taxes must be paid to the correct agency, and these numbers should be double-checked to avoid errors that might cost you penalties.

Once you enter all the relevant information, the pay stub tool will create the pay stub for you. Many professional employer organization (PEO) services do the payroll for you and will provide employees with a pay stub so that you don’t have to do the work of creating it on your own.