How to Read Your Pay Stub

By Muhammad Asad · Last updated: 2026-10-01 · Data: IRS, SSA & Tax Foundation (tax year 2026)

A pay stub is the receipt for your paycheck: what you earned, what was taken out, and what's left. Once you know the six blocks every stub has — earnings, pre-tax deductions, tax lines, post-tax deductions, net pay, and year-to-date totals — you can read any stub in two minutes and catch mistakes before they cost you.

The six blocks on every stub

Stub layouts vary by payroll provider, but the information is always the same. At the top you'll find your name, the employer, the pay period dates (which two weeks this check covers), and your pay rate or salary. Below that, the money falls into six blocks:

Earnings — regular pay, overtime, bonuses, commissions. This is everything you earned this period.
Pre-tax deductions — 401(k), HSA, health premiums, taken out before income tax is figured.
Taxes — federal income tax withholding, state (and sometimes local) tax, Social Security, Medicare.
Post-tax deductions — Roth 401(k), some insurance premiums, union dues, garnishments.
Net pay — gross minus everything above. This is the deposit that hits your account.
Year-to-date (YTD) — running totals of every line since January 1.

Earnings: where gross pay comes from

Gross pay is the total earnings for the period before anything is subtracted. If you're hourly, it's your rate times hours worked, plus overtime (usually 1.5× the rate), plus any bonuses or shift differentials listed on their own lines. If you're salaried, it's your annual salary divided by the number of pay periods — a $75,000 salary paid biweekly is $75,000 ÷ 26 = $2,884.62 of gross pay per check. Bonuses and commissions show up as separate earnings lines because they can be withheld at different rates, so don't be surprised when a bonus check's net looks smaller than expected.

Pre-tax vs. post-tax deductions: the order matters

Stub deductions come in two buckets, and the order changes your taxes:

Pre-tax: traditional 401(k) contributions, HSA contributions, and most health/dental/vision premiums. These come out before federal and state income tax is calculated, so they shrink the taxable base. One nuance: 401(k) contributions don't reduce Social Security and Medicare wages, while HSA contributions and many health premiums generally do.
Post-tax: Roth 401(k) contributions, some life and disability premiums, union dues, and wage garnishments (child support, tax levies). These come out after taxes are figured — they reduce your take-home dollar for dollar with no tax benefit today.

If your stub lumps everything under "deductions" without saying which bucket it's in, your payroll portal's detail view usually labels them. Knowing the split is how you verify that a 401(k) contribution is actually lowering your taxable income.

The tax lines: what each one is

Four lines do most of the shrinking:

Federal income tax — withholding based on your W-4. It's an estimate of your annual liability spread across paychecks, not your final tax bill.
State (and local) income tax — varies by state; zero in the nine states with no income tax. Some cities levy their own on top.
Social Security — 6.2% of wages, but only up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500. Watch your YTD: once you cross it, this line drops to zero for the rest of the year.
Medicare — 1.45% of all wages, no cap. High earners see an extra 0.9% line once wages pass $200,000 (single).

Our paycheck calculator estimates the annual version of every one of these lines for 2026, so you can compare its math against your actual stub.

YTD: the column most people ignore

Next to each "current period" amount, your stub shows a year-to-date total — everything since January 1. This column is your early-warning system. If federal YTD looks far ahead of where it should be mid-year, your W-4 may be over-withholding (hello, giant refund — an interest-free loan to the IRS). If Social Security YTD is approaching $11,439 (the 2026 maximum: 6.2% of $184,500), your late-year checks are about to get bigger. When a single check looks wrong, the YTD column tells you whether it's a one-period blip or a running problem.

A full worked example: one biweekly stub

Take a single filer earning $75,000 in California in 2026, contributing $5,000/year to a traditional 401(k). Every annual figure below comes from the calculator's validated math — the stub just shows one twenty-sixth of each:

Gross pay: $2,884.62
Pre-tax — 401(k): −$192.31 ($5,000/year)
Federal income tax: −$252.69 ($6,570/year on the reduced taxable income)
Social Security: −$178.85 ($4,650/year — 401(k) doesn't reduce FICA wages)
Medicare: −$41.83 ($1,087.50/year)
California income tax: −$91.84 ($2,387.85/year)
Net pay: $2,127.10 — about $55,304.65/year. Notice the 401(k) cost only $3,500 of take-home on a $5,000 contribution, because $1,500 would have gone to taxes anyway.

Common stub acronyms, decoded

Payroll systems love abbreviations. The usual suspects:

FIT / SIT / LIT — federal / state / local income tax withholding.
OASDI — Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance: the formal name for Social Security tax.
EE / ER — employee / employer. "ER 401(k)" is your employer's matching contribution — free money, make sure it's there.
PTO / VAC / SICK — paid time off balances, often printed on the stub for reference.
YTD — year-to-date totals, as above.

The two-minute error check

Run this every few months — payroll mistakes are rare but real, and they compound:

Gross matches your rate. Salary ÷ pay periods, or rate × hours including overtime.
Your 401(k) rate is what you chose. A 5% election on $2,884.62 gross is $144.23 — if the line differs, your election didn't take.
Federal withholding is in the right ballpark. Compare a check against our paycheck calculator — a big gap means your W-4 needs attention.
Benefit premiums match open enrollment. People routinely discover they're paying for a dental plan they never use.
YTD totals add up. Current-period × number of checks should roughly equal YTD (small rounding aside).

Estimates, not advice

The example figures on this page are for tax year 2026, using 2026 federal brackets and the $16,100 single standard deduction, the $184,500 Social Security wage base, and California's 2026 brackets. Real stubs also reflect your W-4 choices, local taxes, and benefit elections, which vary person to person. Use the math here to understand your pay — not as tax advice. When something on your stub doesn't add up, your payroll department is the first call.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between gross pay and net pay on a pay stub?

Gross pay is everything you earned in the pay period before anything is taken out. Net pay — take-home pay — is what's left after taxes and deductions. On a $75,000 salary paid biweekly, gross is about $2,884.62 per check while net is about $2,261.72 (single, California, 2026).

What does YTD mean on a pay stub?

Year-to-date: the running total of each earnings and deduction line since January 1. It lets you check, at a glance, how much federal tax, Social Security, and Medicare you've paid so far this year, and it's the first place to look when a paycheck looks wrong.

Why does my pay stub say FICA?

FICA is the Federal Insurance Contributions Act — the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. In 2026 it's 6.2% for Social Security (on wages up to $184,500) plus 1.45% for Medicare, taken out of every paycheck before income tax withholding.

What are pre-tax vs post-tax deductions?

Pre-tax deductions (traditional 401(k), HSA, most health premiums) come out before income tax is figured, shrinking your taxable income. Post-tax deductions (Roth 401(k), some insurance premiums) come out after taxes are calculated and don't reduce your tax bill today.

Are employers required to give me a pay stub?

Federal law doesn't require pay stubs, but most states do — and each state sets its own rules for what has to appear. In practice, nearly every employer provides one through a payroll portal or with direct deposit.

Why is my net pay different from the salary I was offered?

Salary offers quote gross pay. Your stub shows gross minus federal and state withholding, FICA, and your elected benefit deductions. Comparing offers means comparing net pay after your deductions, not the gross numbers.

Where can I get a copy of an old pay stub?

Check your employer's payroll portal first — most keep several years of stubs. If it's not there, ask HR or payroll; employers keep payroll records and can reissue them. You'll need old stubs (and the year-end W-2) if you're verifying income for a loan or lease.