Paycheck deductions are the amounts your employer subtracts from your gross pay before depositing what’s left into your account. Some are required by law, some you signed up for, and a few arrive by court order. Together they typically consume 25% to 35% of gross wages for most workers, which is why the line items on your stub deserve a closer look than they usually get.
Taxes Your Employer Must Withhold
Federal law requires your employer to hold back several taxes before you see any of your pay. These aren’t optional, and an employer who skips them faces penalties.
Federal income tax is the biggest and most variable piece. Your employer calculates the amount using the information on your IRS Form W-4: filing status, other jobs, dependents, and any extra withholding you request.1Internal Revenue Service. Form W-4, Employees Withholding Certificate Withhold too much and you get a refund at tax time; withhold too little and you owe. Updating the W-4 after a marriage, a birth, a second job, or a divorce is what keeps the number close to reality.
FICA covers Social Security and Medicare. Your employer withholds 6.2% of gross wages for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare, then matches both from its own funds.2Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates The Social Security portion stops once your year-to-date wages hit $184,500 in 2026, which is why high earners see a bump in take-home pay late in the year.3Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base Medicare has no cap, and wages above $200,000 in a calendar year trigger an additional 0.9% withholding on the excess.
Most workers also see state income tax withheld, and nine states don’t tax earned income at all: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Depending on where you live and work, city or county payroll taxes may also apply. A few states run their own disability insurance or paid family leave programs funded through a small employee deduction, usually labeled “SDI” or “PFL” on the stub, with rates generally between about 0.2% and 1.3% of wages.
Deductions You Choose
Everything past the tax lines usually reflects choices you made during onboarding or open enrollment. These require your written authorization, and your employer cannot make your job contingent on agreeing to them.
Retirement Contributions
A 401(k) or 403(b) is the most common way workers move money from paycheck to future retirement. In 2026 you can defer up to $24,500 of your salary. Workers 50 and older can add $8,000 in catch-up contributions, and those aged 60 through 63 get a higher catch-up ceiling of $11,250 under the SECURE 2.0 Act.4Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500 Traditional deferrals come out before federal income tax is calculated, cutting your current taxable income. A Roth 401(k), if your plan offers one, takes contributions after tax but pays out tax-free in retirement on qualified withdrawals.5Internal Revenue Service. Roth Comparison Chart
Health Coverage and Medical Savings
Health, dental, and vision premiums are typically deducted pre-tax when the coverage runs through an employer plan, which quietly lowers your taxable wages.
A Health Savings Account sets aside pre-tax money for medical costs if you’re on a qualifying high-deductible plan. The 2026 HSA limits are $4,400 for individual coverage and $8,750 for family coverage.6Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2026-5, Expanded Availability of Health Savings Accounts The balance rolls over year to year and stays with you when you change jobs. A Flexible Spending Account works differently: the 2026 cap is $3,400, and most FSA plans require you to spend the balance within the plan year or lose it.7Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans Contributions to both accounts avoid federal income tax and FICA.
You can generally only change these elections during open enrollment or after a qualifying life event such as marriage, a birth, or a change in other coverage.
Union Dues and Other Optional Withholdings
If a collective bargaining agreement covers your job, dues may be deducted from your pay. Under the National Labor Relations Act, unions and employers can agree to require dues as a condition of employment, though objecting employees may pay only the share used for direct representation activities like collective bargaining.8National Labor Relations Board. Union Dues In roughly half of states, right-to-work laws bar mandatory dues, so any union deduction is purely voluntary. Life insurance, commuter benefits, charitable giving, and employee stock purchase plans are other optional lines you might see.
Pre-Tax Versus Post-Tax
Whether a deduction comes out before or after taxes changes how much of your paycheck it actually costs. Pre-tax deductions lower the wages your employer reports as taxable, cutting your federal income tax and, in most cases, your FICA taxes.9Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Plan Overview Traditional 401(k) deferrals, HSA and FSA contributions, and employer-sponsored health premiums usually fall in this category.
Post-tax deductions come out after taxes have already been calculated. They don’t help this year’s tax bill. Some, like Roth 401(k) contributions, deliver tax benefits later. Others, including disability insurance premiums, some life insurance costs, and wage garnishments, offer no tax advantage.
A quick way to think about it: $500 a month into a traditional 401(k), if you’re in the 22% bracket, saves you $110 in federal income tax now. The same $500 into a Roth costs you the full $500 in take-home now, but qualified withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. The right choice depends on whether you expect your rate to be higher or lower when you retire.
Court-Ordered Garnishments
Garnishments are the one category of deduction you can’t refuse. Courts and government agencies send the order, and your employer must comply or take on the liability itself.
For ordinary consumer debts like credit card judgments, federal law caps the garnishment at the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings or the amount by which your weekly disposable earnings exceed $217.50 (30 times the $7.25 federal minimum wage).10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment Other debts follow different rules:
- Child and spousal support can reach 50% of disposable earnings if you’re supporting another spouse or child, or 60% if you’re not, with another 5% added when you’re more than 12 weeks behind.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
- Defaulted federal student loans and other non-tax federal debt are generally limited to 15% of disposable pay under administrative wage garnishment rules.11eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
- Federal tax levies use an IRS formula tied to filing status and dependents, which can result in a larger withholding than other garnishments.12Internal Revenue Service. What Is a Levy?
Federal law also prohibits your employer from firing you because your wages have been garnished for a single debt. An employer who does so faces a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year of imprisonment, or both.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1674 – Restriction on Discharge From Employment by Reason of Garnishment That protection covers only garnishment for one indebtedness; it doesn’t apply once you have garnishments for two or more separate debts.
What Your Employer Can’t Take
Not every deduction an employer wants to make is legal. Federal law sets a firm floor: no deduction can drop your effective pay below the minimum wage in any workweek. That means an employer generally cannot charge you for required uniforms, tools of the trade, or equipment if doing so would push your hourly rate below $7.25 (or your state’s higher minimum) that week.14eCFR. 29 CFR Part 531 – Wage Payments Under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 The cost of laundering a required uniform is treated the same way, since it’s viewed as benefiting the employer.
Many states go further and forbid deductions for cash register shortages, breakage, or customer walkouts at any pay level. Specifics vary, but the federal minimum-wage floor applies everywhere.
If you think your employer is taking money it shouldn’t, you can file a confidential complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243. An investigator can review payroll records and require the employer to return improperly withheld wages. Retaliation against you for filing or cooperating is prohibited.15U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
Reading Your Pay Stub
Your stub is where all of this becomes visible. Deductions are usually listed by name with the current pay-period amount and a year-to-date column. That YTD figure is worth watching: it tells you how close you are to annual limits on your 401(k) or HSA, and it should match what eventually shows up on your W-2.
The arithmetic should always work out. Gross pay minus every listed deduction should equal the amount deposited into your bank. When it doesn’t, common causes include a retroactive benefits adjustment, imputed income for employer-provided life insurance above $50,000, or a straight payroll error. Employers are required to keep records of all additions to and deductions from wages, and you can request documentation for anything you don’t recognize.16U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division. Fact Sheet 21 – Recordkeeping Requirements Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
When something looks off, ask payroll or HR before the next pay cycle closes. Small errors compound quickly, and correcting them months later is harder for everyone.