Your pay stub tells the full story of how your salary or hourly wages turn into the number that actually lands in your bank account. It's easy to skim past it, but understanding each line helps you catch payroll errors, plan your budget, and know exactly where your money is going.
Gross Pay
This is your total earnings before any deductions — your hourly rate times hours worked, or your salary divided by the number of pay periods in the year. It's the starting number everything else is calculated from. See our glossary definition for the formal breakdown.
Federal and State Tax Withholding
Your employer withholds an estimated amount of federal income tax (and state income tax, if your state has one) based on the information you provided on your W-4 form, your income level, and your filing status. This is a prepayment toward your actual tax bill, reconciled when you file your tax return.
FICA: Social Security and Medicare
FICA taxes fund Social Security and Medicare and are typically split into two lines: Social Security (6.2% of wages up to an annual limit) and Medicare (1.45% of all wages, with an additional 0.9% for high earners). These are standard payroll taxes that apply to nearly all employees.
Pre-Tax Deductions
These reduce your taxable income before taxes are calculated, and commonly include 401(k) or retirement contributions, health insurance premiums, and flexible spending account (FSA) or health savings account (HSA) contributions. For the dollar-and-cents impact of each of these, see the full tax withholding walkthrough.
Post-Tax Deductions
These come out after taxes are calculated and can include things like Roth 401(k) contributions, wage garnishments, union dues, or certain benefit premiums, depending on how your employer's plan is structured.
Net Pay
This is your actual take-home pay — gross pay minus all taxes and deductions. It's the number that gets deposited into your account or printed on your check.
Year-to-Date (YTD) Totals
Most pay stubs include YTD columns showing your cumulative earnings, taxes, and deductions for the calendar year so far. This is useful for tracking progress toward retirement contribution limits or verifying your total income at tax time.
Why this matters: Reviewing your pay stub regularly helps you catch errors early — like an incorrect tax withholding, a missed raise, or a benefits deduction that shouldn't be there.
A Quick Way to Sanity-Check Your Numbers
If your net pay looks off, or you're switching jobs and want to know what a new salary will actually look like after taxes, running the numbers through our take-home pay tool is a fast way to compare your expected take-home pay against what's showing up on your stub. This is especially useful in states with multiple withholding layers — for example, New York, where NYC or Yonkers residents see a third local tax line, or California, where uncapped State Disability Insurance adds a line most other states don't have.
This article is for general information only and is not tax advice. Payroll and withholding rules can vary by employer, state, and individual circumstances. See our Legal Disclaimer for more, and consult a tax professional for guidance specific to your situation.