A net check on a pay stub is your take-home pay: the dollar amount left after your employer subtracts federal and state taxes, benefit premiums, retirement contributions, and any court-ordered withholdings from your gross earnings for the pay period. If you grossed $5,000 and $1,500 was withheld, your net check is $3,500. That is the number that lands in your bank account.
Most stubs put the figure near the bottom, labeled “Net Pay” or “Net Check.” People use the two terms almost interchangeably. The small distinction is that “net check” points to the specific payment for that period, while “net pay” can describe take-home earnings more generally. The math behind them is the same.
What Gets Subtracted Before You See the Money
Everything between your gross pay and your net check falls into one of four buckets: mandatory taxes, pre-tax deductions, post-tax deductions, and garnishments. Knowing which line item belongs to which bucket is what lets you read the stub.
Mandatory Taxes
Your employer is legally required to withhold several taxes, and they face penalties for failing to remit them on time.1Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Due Dates
Under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, 6.2% of your wages goes to Social Security and 1.45% to Medicare, for a combined 7.65%.2Social Security Administration. Social Security and Medicare Tax Rates Your employer pays a matching 7.65%, but that share does not appear on your stub because it never came out of your wages. The Social Security portion only applies to earnings up to $184,500 in 2026.3Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base Once your year-to-date wages pass that cap, the 6.2% stops and your net check gets a noticeable bump. Medicare has no cap, and an additional 0.9% applies to earnings above $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 filing jointly.
Federal income tax is withheld based on the filing status and adjustments you provide on Form W-4.4Internal Revenue Service. Form W-4 (2026) The system is progressive, so each rate applies only to the slice of income that falls inside its bracket. Your effective rate ends up well below your top marginal rate. If the withholding on your stub looks too high or too low, changing your W-4 is the lever.
Most states withhold their own income tax the same way, with rates that range from zero to graduated brackets. Some cities and counties add a local income tax. Over a dozen states and territories also require small payroll deductions, usually under 1.5% of wages, for programs like temporary disability insurance or paid family leave. Each of those shows up as its own line on the stub.
Pre-Tax Deductions
Pre-tax deductions come out of gross pay before income tax and, in some cases, FICA are calculated. They reduce your taxable wages, so they cost you less than their face value. Health, dental, and vision premiums run through a Section 125 cafeteria plan are the most common.5Internal Revenue Service. FAQs for Government Entities Regarding Cafeteria Plans
Traditional 401(k) and 403(b) contributions are also pre-tax. In 2026, you can defer up to $24,500, plus an $8,000 catch-up if you are 50 or older.6Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026 These contributions lower current taxable income but still get hit with Social Security and Medicare tax.7Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Plan Overview Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts work the same way. HSA limits for 2026 are $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage.8Internal Revenue Service. IRS Notice 2026-05 – HSA Inflation Adjustments Both let you pay qualified medical expenses with dollars that were never taxed.9Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans
Post-Tax Deductions
Post-tax deductions come out after taxes are calculated, so they do not reduce your taxable income. Roth 401(k) contributions are the main example: you pay tax now, and qualified withdrawals in retirement come out tax-free. Union dues, employer-provided life insurance premiums above $50,000 of coverage, and some disability insurance premiums also sit here.
The practical difference matters at the paycheck level. A $200 pre-tax deduction might only shrink your net check by roughly $140 to $160, because it also avoids tax on that $200. A $200 post-tax deduction shrinks your net check by the full $200.
Garnishments
Garnishments are involuntary. A court or agency has ordered your employer to withhold money for unpaid consumer debt, child support, defaulted student loans, or a tax levy, and the employer has to comply.
For ordinary consumer debts, federal law caps the garnishment at the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment “Disposable earnings” means what is left after legally required deductions, not full gross pay. Child support and alimony follow higher limits: up to 50% of disposable earnings if you support another spouse or child, up to 60% otherwise, with an extra 5% if you are more than 12 weeks behind.11U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #30: Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) Tax debts to the IRS or a state are exempt from the standard caps entirely.
A garnishment line you don’t recognize is worth flagging with payroll right away. Errors happen, especially when multiple orders arrive at once.
How the Numbers Move From Gross to Net
Payroll systems work the buckets in a specific order:
- Start with gross pay. Hourly workers get hours times rate, with overtime paid at 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek under federal law. Salaried employees get a fixed per-period amount. Bonuses, commissions, and shift differentials add in.12U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA
- Subtract pre-tax deductions. Cafeteria-plan premiums, traditional 401(k), HSA, and similar elections come off first, reducing what’s subject to federal income tax and, for cafeteria items, FICA too.5Internal Revenue Service. FAQs for Government Entities Regarding Cafeteria Plans
- Subtract mandatory taxes. Social Security, Medicare, federal income tax, and any state or local taxes are calculated on the reduced taxable wages.2Social Security Administration. Social Security and Medicare Tax Rates
- Subtract post-tax deductions. Roth contributions, union dues, and post-tax insurance premiums come out of what’s left.
- Subtract garnishments, within the legal limits.
What survives is your net check. A simplified biweekly example, single filer, $60,000 salary:
- Gross pay per period: $2,307.69
- Pre-tax 401(k) contribution at 6%: −$138.46
- Pre-tax health insurance: −$125.00
- Taxable wages for FICA: $2,044.23
- Social Security at 6.2%: −$143.08
- Medicare at 1.45%: −$29.64
- Federal income tax (estimated): −$175.00
- State income tax (estimated): −$80.00
- Net check: about $1,616.51
Exact federal and state amounts depend on W-4 elections, filing status, and where you live. The sequence, though, is always the same.
Why Two People With the Same Salary Get Different Net Checks
Annual pay doesn’t change with pay frequency, but the per-check number does. At $60,000 a year, gross per check is $5,000 monthly, $2,500 semimonthly, about $2,308 biweekly, and roughly $1,154 weekly.13Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15-T (2025), Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods
Federal income tax withholding also depends on frequency. The IRS publishes separate tables for weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, and monthly payrolls, and the withholding per check isn’t a clean division of an annual figure because progressive brackets interact differently with different per-period amounts. That’s part of why people sometimes owe a little or get a small refund at tax time even with a correct W-4.
Biweekly trips people up in another way. Twenty-six pay periods means two months a year with three checks instead of two. Budgets built on “two checks a month” miss that.
Reading Your Stub and Catching Mistakes
Federal law requires your employer to keep detailed payroll records for non-exempt employees, including hours, pay rate, deductions, and total wages, for at least three years. The FLSA itself doesn’t require your employer to hand you a stub; that comes from state law, and most states do require a written or electronic wage statement each pay period. Either way, those records must be available for inspection by the Department of Labor.14U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #21: Recordkeeping Requirements Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) You can request a copy if one isn’t given automatically.
One protection worth knowing: no deduction, voluntary or employer-imposed, can legally reduce your effective pay rate below the federal minimum wage for the hours worked in that period.15eCFR. Title 29 Section 4.168 – Wage Payments, Deductions From Wages Paid If your employer requires uniforms, tools, or other job-related purchases through payroll deduction, those costs cannot push you below that floor.
Retirement contributions deserve a periodic spot-check. Employers must forward 401(k) money to the plan promptly. Large plans have to deposit contributions as soon as they can reasonably be separated from company assets, and no later than the 15th business day of the following month. Small plans with fewer than 100 participants have a seven-business-day safe harbor.16U.S. Department of Labor. FAQs About Retirement Plans and ERISA If contributions get delayed, the employer must restore them with lost earnings. Compare the deductions on a few stubs against your account balance a few times a year and you’ll catch the problem early.
Reviewing your stub each pay period is the fastest way to catch incorrect hours, missing overtime, a deduction you didn’t authorize, or a retirement contribution that never landed. The net check tells you what hit your account; the lines above it tell you why.