How to verify an ADP pay stub

What's on an ADP stub

Most stubs from large payroll providers follow the same layout: company and employee details at the top, earnings and deductions in the middle, and current and year-to-date totals on the right. Every number on the stub should be traceable to another one.

On an ADP earnings statement, look for these parts and make sure each one is filled in and consistent with the rest:

• The employer's name and address, and the pay period and pay date.
• Earnings: rate, hours and amount for this period, plus a year-to-date column.
• Statutory deductions: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and, in most states, state income tax.
• Other deductions, such as health insurance or a 401(k), each with its own year-to-date amount.
• Net pay, and how it was paid: a direct deposit line usually shows the last digits of the account.

Check the math

Start with the one rule every stub must follow: gross pay minus all deductions equals net pay. Add up every deduction in the current column, subtract it from gross pay, and compare with the net pay printed at the bottom. A difference of a few cents can be rounding; anything more is worth a question.

Then look at the year-to-date column. It can never be lower than the current period, and it should be roughly the current amount times the number of pay periods so far this year. A biweekly employee paid in early April has had about seven paychecks; a year-to-date gross equal to twenty of them doesn't fit the calendar.

Check FICA taxes

Social Security is 6.2% and Medicare is 1.45% of wages after certain pre-tax deductions, like health insurance. If either is off by more than a few cents, that's worth a question.

Both taxes are calculated on the same wages, so they should agree with each other. When someone edits the gross pay on a stub, they often forget to change one of them, or change it by a different amount.

Check the file

If the applicant sent a PDF, the file itself carries a record of how it was made. Payroll systems create a stub once. A PDF that was saved again later in an online editor, or that records a different program than a payroll system, is worth asking about. Many of these edits have ordinary explanations, like merging pages, so treat them as a reason to ask for the original, not as proof.

The simplest way around a doubtful file is to ask the applicant to download the stub again from their payroll portal while you watch, or to forward it straight from the portal's email.

Verify with the employer

Look up the employer's main number on their official website, not on the stub, and ask HR to confirm employment and the net pay for a specific pay date.

Apply the same steps to every applicant who reaches this stage. A stub that doesn't add up is a reason to verify with the source, not a reason on its own to deny an application.