It's also called a paycheck stub, pay statement, earnings statement, or wage statement. It's a US document, and the format isn't standardized: two employers can show the same facts in very different layouts.

Landlords and lenders often ask for recent stubs to see your income, and they're how you catch payroll mistakes before tax time.

What a pay stub is

A pay stub is a record of one pay period. It is not your annual tax form, which is the W-2, and it is not a bank record of the deposit, which shows up on a bank statement.

Here's the part that surprises people. The Department of Labor's FLSA Advisor says the federal Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid, but it does not require an employer to give employees pay stubs. Whether you get one is mostly a state question, and states differ. Some require a written statement with each paycheck and some don't, and the contents they require vary. Your state labor department is the place to confirm the rule where you work. DOL's State Payday Requirements page covers how often you must be paid, a related but separate rule.

What's on it

Layouts vary, but most stubs carry the same blocks. The federal recordkeeping list in DOL Fact Sheet #21 shows what employers covered by the FLSA must record for non-exempt workers, and a good stub reflects most of it.

Field What it means What to check
Pay period and pay date The dates the pay covers, and the date you were paid Matches the days you worked and the deposit date
Hours and rate Hours worked and your hourly rate (or the basis of pay, such as a weekly amount) Hours match your own records
Gross pay Total earnings before deductions, including any overtime Equals hours times rate, plus overtime
Overtime Overtime earnings for the workweek, if any Present if you worked overtime hours
Taxes withheld Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare (FICA), and state tax where one applies Amounts look steady from period to period
Other deductions Items such as health premiums or retirement contributions You recognize every line
Net pay Gross pay minus all deductions, the amount paid to you Matches the deposit in your bank account
Year-to-date (YTD) totals Running totals since January 1, on many stubs Last stub of the year lines up with your W-2

DOL's optional Wage Statement form (WH-501) has the same basic shape, down to itemized FICA, federal and state tax lines.

What to keep and for how long

There's no single official period for a pay stub, so here's the practical version.

  • During the year, keep every stub as proof if a payroll error comes up.
  • After you get your W-2, compare its totals with your final stub's year-to-date figures. If they match, the individual stubs have done their job.
  • For tax records, the IRS says to keep records supporting income on a return until the period of limitations runs out, which is generally 3 years from when you filed, with longer periods in some situations. Many people simply keep the W-2 and the last stub of each year with their tax file.
  • For applications, keep the latest few handy to send.

Employers have their own, separate duty: DOL says they must preserve payroll records for at least three years. That's their copy, not yours, so keep your own. If you lose stubs, ask your employer or payroll provider; for tax purposes, the IRS offers wage and income transcripts through your online account.

For other papers, see what documents to keep and how long.

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