How to read a pay stub: what each line and abbreviation means
What the common lines and abbreviations on a pay stub mean, and how they fit together.Every payroll provider labels things a little differently. Here is what the common lines and abbreviations mean, and how they fit together.
The header
- Employer name and address, and often the employer's identification number (EIN), nine digits in the format 12-3456789.
- Employee name and address.
- Pay period: the dates the work was done. Pay date: the day the money was paid. The pay date falls on or after the end of the period.
Earnings
Each kind of pay gets its own line, usually with a rate, hours and amount for this period and a year-to-date total: regular pay, overtime, holiday or paid time off, bonuses and commissions. Overtime for a non-exempt employee is at least one and a half times the regular rate under federal law, so an overtime rate below that is worth a question.
Gross pay is the sum of all earnings lines for the period.
Taxes and their abbreviations
- FIT, FED WH or Federal Income Tax: federal income tax withheld. It depends on the employee's W-4, so there's no single rate to check it against.
- SS, OASDI or FICA-SS: Social Security. OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. It's 6.2% of Social Security wages, and stops for the year once wages reach the wage base ($184,500 in 2026).
- MED, MEDI or FICA-MED: Medicare, 1.45% of Medicare wages with no wage limit, plus 0.9% on wages over $200,000 in a year.
- SIT, ST WH or the state's name: state income tax. It should match the state where the employee works; nine states have no state income tax on wages.
- Local or city tax: some cities and counties tax wages too.
- Lines like SDI, PFL or PFML: state disability or paid family leave programs that some states fund through payroll. They aren't income taxes.
Pre-tax and after-tax deductions
Pre-tax deductions come out before some taxes are calculated. Pre-tax health, dental and vision premiums lower the wages for income tax, Social Security and Medicare. A traditional 401(k) lowers the wages for federal income tax, but not for Social Security and Medicare.
After-tax deductions come out after taxes: Roth 401(k) contributions, which the IRS counts as wages in the year they're made, and court-ordered deductions such as child support.
Net pay and year-to-date
Net pay is gross pay minus every tax and deduction, and it should arrive in the employee's bank account on or right after the pay date. The year-to-date (YTD) column adds up each line since January 1. It can never be lower than the current period, and it should be close to the current amount times the number of paychecks so far this year.