Read a pay stub from top to bottom in the order payroll built it: dates, earnings, gross pay, taxes, deductions, net pay, then the year-to-date column.
At each step, check that the numbers above produce the number below. If every line adds up, the stub is telling you exactly how your paycheck was worked out.
Below is a complete example stub for an invented employee, made with our generator, with every line numbered. The second table does the checks on its actual figures, including one that looks wrong by a cent and is not.
The stub, line by line
Ines works as a veterinary technician in Savannah, Georgia. She is paid every two weeks, worked 3 hours of overtime this period, saves in a 401(k), pays for health cover through her employer and gives a small amount to charity from each check.
| Line | This period | Year to date |
|---|---|---|
| Wilmington Island Animal Clinic LLC, Savannah, GA. Employee: Ines Barrowman, ID 2276 | ||
| 1Pay period Sep 28, 2026 to Oct 11, 2026, paid Oct 16, 2026 | ||
| Earnings | ||
| 2Regular pay: 80 hrs at $23.75 | $1,900.00 | $38,000.00 |
| 3Overtime (1.5x): 3 hrs at $35.63 | $106.88 | $2,137.60 |
| 4Gross pay | $2,006.88 | $40,137.60 |
| Taxes withheld | ||
| 5Federal income tax | $139.19 | $2,783.80 |
| 6Social Security | $120.21 | $2,404.20 |
| 7Medicare | $28.11 | $562.20 |
| 8Georgia income tax | $63.96 | $1,279.20 |
| Deductions | ||
| 9401(k), 4% of gross (pre-tax) | $80.28 | $1,605.60 |
| 9Health insurance (Section 125, pre-tax) | $68.00 | $1,360.00 |
| 9Charity pledge (after tax) | $10.00 | $200.00 |
| 10Net pay | $1,497.13 | $29,942.60 |
Every stub carries the same four blocks, whatever the layout or payroll company: who and when at the top, earnings, then taxes, then other deductions. Some print the blocks side by side, but the order the money moves in is always the same.
Eleven checks, with the math
| # | Check | The math on this stub | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dates | A biweekly period runs 14 days; this one ends Oct 11, 2026 and pays Oct 16, 2026. | Matches your timesheet |
| 2 | Regular hours times rate | 80 x $23.75 = $1,900.00 | Matches |
| 3 | Overtime at time and a half | $23.75 x 1.5 = $35.625 an hour, printed as $35.63. 3 x $35.63 = $106.89; the stub shows $106.88. | A cent of rounding, not an error |
| 4 | Gross pay adds up | $1,900.00 + $106.88 = $2,006.88 | Matches |
| 5 | Federal income tax | Figured on $1,858.60 (gross minus the 401(k) and health premium) from the W-4 on file, so there is no single rate to multiply. | Compare with the IRS estimator |
| 6 | Social Security | 6.2% of $1,938.88 (gross minus the Section 125 premium) = $120.21 | Matches |
| 7 | Medicare | 1.45% of the same $1,938.88 = $28.11 | Matches |
| 8 | State income tax | Georgia withholding starts from the same $1,858.60 and uses the state's own tables. | Check the state on the stub |
| 9 | Deductions | 401(k) 4% of $2,006.88 = $80.28; health $68.00; charity pledge $10.00 | Match your enrollment forms |
| 10 | Net pay | $2,006.88 - $351.47 taxes - $158.28 deductions = $1,497.13 | Matches the deposit |
| 11 | Year to date | Same pay every period, so $2,006.88 x 20 pay days = $40,137.60 | Matches the YTD gross |
Checks 2 to 6 and 10 are pure arithmetic, so they should match to the cent. Check 3 shows why sometimes they do not: the overtime rate is rounded for printing, while payroll multiplies the unrounded rate. A one-cent gap like this is normal.
A gap of several dollars is not. If gross pay does not equal the earnings lines, or net pay does not equal gross minus everything taken out, ask payroll before you rely on the figures.
Where the gross pay went
About three quarters of Ines’s gross pay reaches her bank account. The rest splits between taxes she cannot change, choices she made at enrollment and one after-tax gift. Seeing it as a picture makes it easier to spot a deduction that has grown or one you did not sign up for.
Reading the tax lines
Social Security and Medicare are flat rates, 6.20% and 1.45%, so you can check them with a calculator. Take them on gross pay minus any Section 125 benefits such as the health premium here, not on the full gross.
A traditional 401(k) does not lower that base, because retirement deferrals still count as Social Security and Medicare wages. The pre-tax deductions guide shows which benefit lowers which tax.
Federal income tax has no single rate to check. It comes from the IRS withholding tables, your pay frequency and the W-4 you gave your employer, after pre-tax deductions.
The way to test it is the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator, which compares a year of withholding at this level with what you are likely to owe.
State income tax follows the same idea with the state’s own tables, and a few states have no tax on wages at all. Stubs often shorten the names: FIT, SS or OASDI, MED. Our explainers on FIT and OASDI decode the common labels.
Reading the year-to-date column
Year to date is the running total since January 1, and it should grow by exactly the current amount each payday. When pay is the same every period, YTD equals the current figure times the number of paydays so far, as check 11 shows.
When it does not, there is usually a good reason: a raise, a bonus, a different number of hours, or a job that started mid-year.
Social Security also stops for the year once YTD Social Security wages reach $184,500, so that line can drop to zero late in the year. The full story is in what YTD means on a pay stub.
When a number is wrong
- Write down which check failed and by how much, using the current and YTD columns.
- Compare hours with your own timesheet and the rate with your offer letter or last raise notice.
- Compare deductions with your benefit elections and your W-4.
- Ask payroll or HR in writing, and keep the stub and their answer.
- For unpaid wages or overtime that is not resolved, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division takes complaints, and many states have their own labor office.
If the problem is overtime, how to calculate overtime pay covers bonuses and second pay rates, which change the rate payroll should use.
Employers and contractors who need to issue stubs can make them in the free pay stub generator, which lays out every line in this order and fills in the YTD column from the pay date.
Sources: IRS Publication 15 (2026); IRS Publication 15-B (2026); IRS Tax Withholding Estimator; U.S. Department of Labor, Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Checked October 19, 2026.
