What Is a Pay Stub, and What Must It Show (2026)

What a pay stub is

The stub is the employee's copy of the payroll record for one pay period. It shows how the gross was earned (hours and rate, salary, overtime, bonus, tips), what was taken out and why (each tax and each deduction on its own line), the net that was paid, and the same figures accumulated since January 1. The employer keeps the full record — the FLSA requires hours, wages and deductions to be kept for three years — and the stub is the part shared with the employee, on paper or through a payroll portal. It is not a tax form: the W-2 in January summarises the year for the IRS, and the two should agree, which is the check the how to read your paycheck guide walks through.

What it must show

Federal law requires the employer to keep the record but not to give the employee a statement. State law fills the gap: most states require a written or electronic statement with each payment, and the strictest — California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington among them — list what it must contain: gross wages, hours worked and the rate for hourly employees, each deduction itemised, net wages, the pay period dates, the employer's legal name and address, and for California the accrued paid sick leave. A few states require nothing. Where a statement is required, missing items carry penalties — California's are per employee per pay period — and are the basis of a good share of wage claims. The Department of Labor keeps the state-by-state table.

The anatomy, section by section

Header: employer, employee, pay period start and end, pay date. Earnings: each type on its own line with hours, rate and amount for the period and year-to-date — regular, overtime at 1.5×, holiday, PTO used, bonus, commission, tips. Their total is gross. Pre-tax deductions: 401(k), health, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, commuter; the total reduces the taxable wages lines. Taxes: federal income tax, Social Security (OASDI or FICA-SS), Medicare (FICA-MED or HI), state income tax, local tax, state disability or paid-leave insurance where the state has one. After-tax deductions: Roth, union dues, garnishments, life insurance beyond the employer-paid amount. Net pay and how it was paid (direct deposit account, cheque number). Employer contributions, informational: the FICA match, the health premium share, the 401(k) match. On $60,000 every two weeks in Texas the taxes section reads federal $193.08, Social Security $143.08, Medicare $33.46, net $1,938.07.

How to get your pay stubs

Most employers publish them in a payroll portal (ADP, Paychex, Gusto, Workday, Paycom and the rest) where they can be downloaded as PDFs going back years; a former employer's portal usually stays accessible for a period after leaving. Where the employer does not provide access, state law in most states gives the employee the right to request the records — the Department of Labor lists which states require the request to be honoured within a set number of days. Pay stubs are the standard proof of income for a lease, a car loan or a mortgage, usually the last two to three, and they are what a mortgage underwriter compares with the W-2 and the tax return.

Generated stubs and where the line is

Pay-stub generators produce a stub from figures you type in. Used to reproduce a paycheck you actually received — for a self-employed person's own records, a small employer without payroll software, a lost stub — they are legitimate, and this site's pay stub template is one. Used to invent income for a lease or a loan they are fraud, and lenders check stubs against W-2s, bank deposits and tax transcripts; the mismatch is easy to find. A stub is a record of a payment, not evidence on its own.

The three taxes on a paycheck, and why they behave differently

Federal income tax is progressive and starts from zero: the first $16,100 a single filer earns in 2026 is untaxed because that is the standard deduction, and the rate then climbs through seven brackets from 10% to 37%. It is the only line your W-4 changes. FICA is flat from the first dollar — 6.2% for Social Security up to $184,500 of wages and 1.45% for Medicare without limit — and no form changes it. State income tax is whatever your state decided: nothing in 9 states, one flat rate in 13, brackets in the other 29, and 11 states let a city or county add a line of their own.

On the $2,307.69 biweekly example above: $193.08 of federal withholding, $176.54 of FICA and $0.00 of Texas tax. Keeping them on separate lines is the point: a 401(k) contribution moves the first and third but not the second; a raise moves all three at different rates; the Social Security cap moves only the second. A single «taxes» figure hides which lever does what.

Pre-tax deductions: what each one really costs

A $250 contribution to a traditional 401(k) does not cost $250 of take-home. It comes out before federal income tax (and before state tax in most states), so at a 12% marginal rate the paycheck falls by about $220.00. What it does not escape is FICA: the IRS is explicit that elective deferrals are wages for Social Security and Medicare, so the saving is the income tax rate, not the income tax rate plus 7.65%. Health premiums, HSA and FSA contributions through a Section 125 plan are the exception and escape FICA too: the same $250 through an HSA costs about $200.88 of take-home.

After-tax deductions — a Roth 401(k), union dues, garnishments, post-tax life cover — reduce nothing but the deposit, and still belong in the calculation because the deposit is the number that matters. On a $2,307.69 paycheck, the 401(k) calculator draws the cost curve one percent at a time and the pre-tax deductions calculator compares the two kinds side by side.

Pay frequency changes the number, not the pay

$60,000 a year is $1,153.85 a week, $2,307.69 every two weeks, $2,500.00 twice a month and $5,000.00 a month. Nothing about the tax changes, only the slice you see on payday — but the slice is what people budget from, and biweekly and semi-monthly are the pair that get confused: the biweekly paycheck is about 7.7% smaller, and in return two months a year contain three of them.

Frequency also affects withholding precision, because the IRS percentage method annualises each paycheck on its own. A monthly paycheck with a bonus in it is annualised twelve times over, a weekly one fifty-two times, which is why bonuses are usually withheld separately at a flat rate. Some years have 27 biweekly or 53 weekly paydays; the advanced panel of the paycheck calculator has both, because payroll software does.

What changed in 2026

The standard deduction is $16,100 single, $32,200 joint and $24,150 head of household; every bracket threshold moved up with inflation; the Social Security wage base is $184,500; the 401(k) elective limit is $24,500. Each is read from the document that sets it — IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the SSA's contribution and benefit base, IRS Notice 2025-67 — and listed with its source under the calculator.

The bigger change is the set of new federal deductions: qualified overtime premium pay up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint), reported tips up to $25,000, and $6,000 more for each person aged 65 or over, all phasing out above $150,000 of income. None of them changes what an employer withholds, because Publication 15-T does not know about them; they reduce the tax owed at filing, which is why the calculators on this site show them in the «withholding vs what you owe» box rather than on the paycheck. The what changed in 2026 guide keeps the dated list, including state changes.

A worked example: $52,000 in Georgia, paid monthly

Take $52,000 a year in Georgia, paid monthly (12 paychecks), single, standard W-4, no pre-tax deductions. The gross per paycheck is $4,333.33. Federal income tax withholding, from the 2026 Publication 15-T percentage method, takes $338.33. Social Security takes 6.2% of gross, $268.67, and Medicare 1.45%, $62.83. Georgia withholds $166.33 under its flat rate and deductions. The net deposit is $3,497.17, 80.7% of gross; over the year that is $41,966 from $52,000, an effective rate of 19.3% on all taxes together. Every line is reproducible from the documents on the sources page, and the table below lists them in the order they appear on a stub.

Two things on that stub are not obvious from the totals. First, the federal line is withholding, not tax: the tables annualise this paycheck as if all 12 were identical, and the year's actual tax, $4,060, differs from the $4,060 withheld by $0, which becomes a bill in April. Second, Social Security and Medicare are the same fraction of every paycheck of the year, because the salary is under the wage base, and no form can change them; only Section 125 deductions reduce their base. The reading guide walks each line and names what it should equal.

Nearby salaries: what $32,000 to $87,000 leave in Georgia

A raise or a job offer is rarely at the round number on this page, so here is the ladder around it: the same monthly paycheck at 6 salaries from $32,000 to $87,000, single, standard W-4, no deductions. The effective rate climbs from 16.0% to 23.8% across the range because federal income tax is progressive while FICA is flat; each extra $10,000 of salary leaves less than the last, and the pay raise calculator prices any step exactly. The salary after tax pages carry the full range, one page per amount.

Reading the ladder the other way answers the interview question: to take home $10,000 more a year in Georgia takes a raise of roughly $13,124 in gross at this level, because the new dollars are taxed at the marginal rate rather than the average. The state column grows in a straight line, since Georgia charges one rate; the FICA column grows in a straight line until the wage base. The gross-up calculator runs the reverse computation for any net.

The same paycheck under each filing status

Filing status is the one W-4 line everyone fills in, and it moves the federal line more than most people expect. On $52,000 in Georgia, paid monthly, a single filer is withheld $338.33 per paycheck; married filing jointly (one income) $165.00, because the joint table doubles the standard deduction to $32,200 and widens every bracket; head of household $249.00, with its $24,150 deduction and its own brackets. Married filing separately uses the single table. Georgia's own deductions and brackets are the same for joint filers, which is why the state column moves too. Picking «married» with two incomes and skipping step 2 is the commonest cause of an April bill; the W-4 guide covers the choice.

The last column shows why the status matters beyond the paycheck: the year's federal income tax on $52,000 is $4,060 single and $1,980 married filing jointly on one income, a difference of $2,080 that the W-4 status either delivers through the year or holds back for a refund. Head of household is the status most often missed by single parents, who leave $1,072 a year on the single table. FICA is identical in every row, since it has no status.

The whole year on $52,000: withholding, tax due, and the settlement

12 paychecks of $4,333.33 withhold $4,060 of federal income tax over 2026. The tax actually due on the return, with the $16,100 standard deduction and no credits, is $4,060, so the year ends with about $0 owed — the gap between the withholding tables' approximation and the exact computation. The marginal rate on the last dollar is 12%; the effective rate on all taxes together is 19.3%. Social Security applies to every paycheck of the year, because $52,000 is under the $184,500 wage base. The 2026 deductions for overtime premium and tips apply at filing to anyone with qualifying pay; they do not change these paychecks. Georgia takes $1,996 for the year, 3.8% of salary.

Refund or bill: what the year settles

Withholding is a prepayment; the return computes the tax and returns or collects the difference. On $52,000 with these settings the year withholds $4,060 against $4,060 due, so the settlement is a bill of about $0. A refund is money lent to the Treasury at no interest for up to sixteen months; a bill is fine up to a point and penalised beyond it. The point is the safe harbour: withholding of at least 90% of this year's tax ($3,654 here) or 100% of last year's (110% above $150,000 of income) avoids the underpayment penalty, which is interest on each quarter's shortfall. These paychecks clear the 90% harbour on their own.

What makes the settlement move: credits the W-4 does not carry (the earned income credit, education credits, the 2026 overtime and tip deductions), which enlarge the refund; a second income, other income, or too many dependents on the form, which produce the bill; a bonus withheld at the flat 22% when the marginal rate is 12%, which over-withholds at this salary; and a change of job or a partial year, which annualises each paycheck wrongly. The W-4 fixer sets the lines that bring the settlement to zero, or to a chosen refund.

What deductions do to this paycheck

Deductions are where the same salary produces different paychecks. A 6% traditional 401(k) contribution — $260.00 per paycheck on $52,000, well under the $24,500 annual limit — reduces federal and state taxable wages but not FICA wages, so it costs $215.83 of take-home rather than its face value. A $150 Section 125 deduction for health premiums or an HSA reduces every base including FICA, and costs $113.05. A Roth contribution of the same 6% comes out after tax and costs the full amount now in exchange for tax-free withdrawals later. The table gives each case for this paycheck; the pre-tax deductions calculator runs any amount and the 401(k) calculator draws the whole curve.

The order matters on the stub as well as in the arithmetic. Section 125 items come off first and reduce the FICA wages line, which is why a health premium lowers the Social Security and Medicare figures by 7.65% of itself; the 401(k) comes off next and reduces federal taxable wages only. Both appear in the W-2: box 1 (federal wages) is gross minus both, boxes 3 and 5 (Social Security and Medicare wages) are gross minus the Section 125 items alone. An employer match, where there is one, is added on top of the contribution and never touches the paycheck; the compare two jobs tool values it.

What each W-4 line does to this paycheck

The federal line is the only tax on the stub that a form can change, and each step of the W-4 moves it by a predictable amount. One qualifying child on step 3 lowers withholding by $183.33 per paycheck — the $2,200 credit spread over 12 paychecks — taking the net to $3,680.50. Checking box 2(c) for a second job raises it by $247.09, because the checkbox table halves the brackets so that each job is withheld as if it earned half the household income. Extra withholding on 4(c) is dollar for dollar. Other income on 4(a) adds the tax on it at the marginal rate; deductions on 4(b) remove it. The table runs each case for $52,000 in Georgia; the W-4 fixer computes the combination that makes the year's withholding equal the year's tax.

None of these lines changes the tax; they change when it is paid. Claiming a child that is not yours on step 3, or deductions you will not take on 4(b), enlarges every paycheck and produces the same amount plus a penalty in April. The lawful levers are the ones you are entitled to — the children you have, the deductions you will itemise, the second income you must account for — and the fixer applies exactly those. A new W-4 takes effect from the next payroll run after your employer receives it, and the year-to-date withholding already taken is not recomputed.

$52,000 in Georgia against nine other states

Federal tax and FICA are the same everywhere; the state line is what moves. On $52,000 paid monthly, the nine states with no wage tax leave $3,663.50 per paycheck; California leaves $3,566.87, $96.63 less, or $1,160 over the year. Flat-rate states sit in between and their rate is the whole story; bracket states depend on the salary. Prices move more than taxes between most of these states, and the state pages carry the BEA price index beside the take-home; the state ranking sorts all 51 for any salary.

Two cautions before reading the table as a moving guide. The state taxes wages where the work is done, with the resident state taxing everything and crediting the work state, so a remote job does not change the column unless you change where you live — and five states apply a «convenience of the employer» rule that keeps taxing remote work done elsewhere. And the no-tax states collect the difference elsewhere: property tax in Texas and New Hampshire, sales tax in Tennessee and Washington. The no-income-tax guide and the local taxes guide cover both.

A raise on $52,000: what arrives

A raise is taxed at the margin, so what reaches the account is the raise minus the marginal federal rate, FICA and the state's marginal rate on the new dollars only. A 3% raise on $52,000 in Georgia adds $130.00 of gross to a monthly paycheck and $97.96 of net, 75.4% of it; against 3% inflation it is a real raise of about 0.0%. Nothing about the raise changes the tax on the salary below it — the «pushed into a higher bracket» fear describes arithmetic that does not exist in a progressive system. The table runs three sizes; the pay raise calculator runs any, with the inflation figure you enter.

A bonus on top of $52,000

A bonus paid separately is withheld at the flat 22% federal rate plus FICA and state: a $1,000 bonus leaves $699.34 and a $5,000 bonus $3,496.70 in Georgia. Paid inside a regular paycheck under the aggregate method, the same bonuses are withheld $120.00 and $979.17 federally instead of $220.00 and $1,100.00, because the combined paycheck is annualised as if it recurred. The tax actually owed is the marginal rate — 12% at this salary — so the $5,000 bonus is really taxed $600.00 federally and the flat method returns $500.00 at filing. The bonus calculator shows both methods for any amount and state.

Common mistakes

Not checking the stub against the W-2. Box 1 should equal the year-to-date federal taxable wages. Ignoring year-to-date. It drives the Social Security cap. Assuming a stub is required everywhere. Federal law requires the record, not the statement; most states require the statement.

Reading the flat 22% on a bonus as the tax on it. It is withholding; the tax is your marginal rate. Budgeting from the wrong paycheck: biweekly and semi-monthly differ by about 7.7%. Claiming the same child on two W-4s, which under-withholds the household by the credit. Assuming a raise can push you into a bracket that leaves you worse off — in a progressive system it cannot. Forgetting the Social Security cap: above $184,500 the later paychecks are larger, and a budget built on January's paycheck is too tight for December's.