How to Read Your Pay Stub (Every Line, Explained)

Most people check one number on their pay stub — the deposit — and file the rest unread. That works until it doesn't: payroll errors are common enough that a five-minute read twice a year routinely finds money. Here's every section, decoded.

The earnings block

Gross pay: your salary divided by pay periods, or hours × rate for hourly workers. Check the rate after every raise — the single most common payroll error is a raise that never made it into the system. Overtime should appear as its own line at 1.5× for non-exempt workers. Other lines you might see: holiday pay, shift differential, bonus (often taxed at a flat 22% federal supplemental rate on the check, reconciled at filing), and PTO payouts.

The deductions block

Pre-tax first: 401(k), HSA/FSA, medical/dental/vision premiums, commuter benefits. These reduce the taxable wages shown further down — which is why your "federal taxable wages" line is smaller than gross.

Then taxes: FIT or FWT (federal income tax withheld — driven by your W-4), Social Security or OASDI (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%), state income tax, and possibly SDI/PFL (state disability/family leave, in CA, NJ, NY, WA and a few others) or a city tax line. Post-tax deductions come last: Roth 401(k), garnishments, union dues, life insurance over $50K (which appears as "imputed income" — the IRS taxes the premium value even though you never saw the cash).

The YTD columns and why they matter

Year-to-date columns let you audit the whole year at a glance. Three checks worth doing every June and December: (1) YTD 401(k) vs. the annual limit — hitting it early can cost match in some plans; (2) YTD Social Security stops accruing once wages pass the cap ($184,500 in 2026) — if it keeps deducting after, payroll owes you; (3) YTD federal withholding vs. your projected tax — a big mismatch in June is fixable with a W-4 tweak; discovered in April, it's a bill.

Three errors that actually happen

Old rate after a raise. Overtime paid at straight time. Benefits deducted for a plan you dropped at open enrollment. Each is a one-email fix with the stub as evidence — and each compounds silently if unread. If your netted amount doesn't match what the paycheck calculator estimates within a few percent, the stub will tell you exactly which line is the culprit.