A payroll receipt is the document your employer gives you each pay period showing what you earned, what was withheld, and what you took home. Most people call it a pay stub. It breaks your compensation into three figures: gross pay before anything is taken out, the itemized deductions in the middle, and net pay at the bottom. Everything worth checking on your paycheck lives in that middle section.
What Appears on a Payroll Receipt
Federal regulations require your employer to track a specific set of data for every covered worker: your full name, pay rate, hours worked each day and week, straight-time and overtime earnings, all additions to or deductions from wages, total wages paid, and the dates of the pay period.1GovInfo. 29 CFR Part 516 – Records To Be Kept by Employers Most pay stubs mirror that internal record.
Hourly workers see total hours and an hourly rate. Salaried employees see the annual salary divided into a pay-period amount. Both formats itemize every deduction, from federal taxes to voluntary items like health insurance premiums and retirement contributions. Most employers also print year-to-date totals so you can watch cumulative earnings and withholdings build across the calendar year.
The Federal Tax Lines You’ll See
The biggest deductions on nearly every pay stub are federal taxes, split between income tax withholding and FICA.
Federal income tax withholding follows the information you gave your employer on Form W-4, adjusted for your filing status, dependents, and any extra withholding you requested. In 2026, federal income tax rates run from 10% to 37%, but the amount taken from each check is calculated by annualizing your pay-period earnings, not by looking at your total annual income.
FICA covers Social Security and Medicare. Your employer withholds 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare, a combined 7.65%, and pays a matching 7.65% out of its own pocket.2Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates Social Security tax only applies up to an annual wage cap. For 2026, that cap is $184,500; wages above it are not subject to the 6.2% withholding.3Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base
Higher earners pick up an extra line. Once your wages cross $200,000 in a calendar year ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly), your employer must withhold an additional 0.9% Medicare tax on earnings above that threshold. This Additional Medicare Tax appears as a separate item on the pay stub once your year-to-date wages trigger it.4Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers for the Additional Medicare Tax
Is Your Employer Required to Give You a Pay Stub
Federal law and state law answer this question differently, and the difference matters.
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires every covered employer to keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid. Payroll records have to be preserved for at least three years, and supporting documents like time cards and wage-rate tables for at least two.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 21 – Recordkeeping Requirements Under the Fair Labor Standards Act But the FLSA does not require your employer to hand you a copy of any of it. A company can comply with federal law by keeping detailed internal ledgers and never giving you a single pay stub.
State law fills that gap in most of the country. Roughly 42 states and the District of Columbia require employers to provide a wage statement with each paycheck, generally covering gross wages, itemized deductions, and net pay. Some states also require hours worked, pay rate, and the employer’s name and address. Delivery rules vary: some states require paper unless you consent to electronic delivery, others accept electronic-only statements as long as you can view and print them, and a handful of states impose no pay stub requirement at all. Your state labor department’s website is the reliable place to check what your employer owes you.
Paper Stubs Versus Online Portals
Physical stubs attached to a paycheck have mostly given way to secure employer portals where you log in, view, and download each stub after direct deposit hits. Some employers email password-protected PDFs instead.
Electronic delivery is convenient but carries a risk worth planning around: if you leave the job, you may lose access to the portal and to every stub still sitting inside it. Download your pay stubs as they arrive and save them somewhere you control. This matters most at year-end, when you’ll need those records to verify your W-2.
Checking Your Pay Stubs Against Your W-2
Your last pay stub of the year and your Form W-2 should tell the same story. The W-2 is the official tax document your employer files with the Social Security Administration and provides to you, summarizing the year’s earnings and withholdings. Employers must furnish W-2s by January 31, with the deadline moving to the next business day when January 31 falls on a weekend.6Internal Revenue Service. General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 (2026)
When your W-2 shows up, compare it to the year-to-date figures on your final stub. Gross wages, federal income tax withheld, Social Security wages, and Medicare wages should match. Small rounding differences are normal. Larger gaps need to go to your payroll department before you file your return, because the IRS receives the same W-2 data and will flag a return that doesn’t match.
What to Do If Your Pay Stub Is Wrong
Errors on pay stubs are common: hours logged incorrectly, missing overtime, wrong tax withholding, deductions you didn’t authorize. Reviewing every stub is how you catch them while they’re still easy to fix.
Start with your employer. Put the discrepancy in writing to payroll or HR, and identify the specific pay periods and dollar amounts involved. Most errors turn out to be data-entry mistakes and get corrected quickly. Keep copies of what you send and what comes back.
If your employer refuses to fix a legitimate error, or you believe wages are being withheld, you can file a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Call 1-866-487-9243 or submit a complaint through the WHD website. Complaints are confidential, and federal law prohibits your employer from retaliating against you for filing one.7U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
Deadlines matter. Under federal law, you have two years from the date of a wage violation to file a claim, and three years if the violation was willful.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 29 – 255 Statute of Limitations State deadlines can be shorter or longer. Raise the issue as early as you can.
How Long to Keep Pay Stubs
The IRS recommends keeping tax records for at least three years from the date you filed the return they support.9Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records? For most workers, the practical routine looks like this: hold every stub through the end of the year, compare the totals against your W-2, and once the W-2 checks out and your return is filed, the W-2 becomes your primary record. Keep it for at least three years. If you’re in a wage dispute or expect one, keep every stub until the matter is fully resolved.
Pay stubs carry sensitive personal data, so treat them the way you’d treat a bank statement. Shred paper copies you no longer need. If your stubs still display your full Social Security number, ask payroll whether they can mask all but the last four digits, the same truncation the IRS now permits on the employee copy of Form W-2.10Federal Register. Use of Truncated Taxpayer Identification Numbers on Forms W-2