How to Read Your Pay Stub: Every Line Explained (2026)

Gross pay is the starting point — your wages before any taxes or deductions are taken out. For salaried workers, gross pay equals your annual salary divided by the number of pay periods. On a biweekly schedule, a $78,000 annual salary produces gross pay of $3,000 per period. For hourly workers, gross pay is your hourly rate multiplied by hours worked. Overtime hours (above 40 per week) are typically calculated at 1.5× the regular rate and added to regular pay to produce gross pay.

Gross pay is the figure all withholding calculations start from. Every other line on your pay stub — taxes, deductions, net pay — derives from it.

The federal income tax line represents the amount your employer calculated using IRS Publication 15-T and your W-4 elections. This amount varies based on your filing status (single, married, head of household), any adjustments you made on your W-4 (additional withholding, dependent credits, deductions), and your gross wages for the period.

Federal income tax is not a fixed percentage. A single filer earning $3,000 biweekly will see a different percentage withheld than a married-filing-jointly filer at the same gross pay. The amount can also change mid-year if you submit a new W-4, receive a raise, or earn supplemental income. If your employer runs payroll manually or uses the Wage Bracket method instead of Percentage Method, small variations in the result are normal.

These two lines represent your FICA taxes — the fixed-rate payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. Unlike federal income tax, FICA is not affected by your W-4 or filing status. The rates are set by statute and are the same for every W-2 employee:

• Social Security: 6.2% on wages up to $184,500 per year (2026). When your YTD wages cross $184,500, this line drops to $0.00 for all remaining paychecks of the year.
• Medicare: 1.45% on all wages. There is no annual cap. Workers who earn more than $200,000 will also see an Additional Medicare Tax line of 0.9% once wages cross that threshold.

Your employer pays a matching 7.65% in FICA on your behalf — this does not appear on your pay stub but is a real cost of employing you.

If you live and work in one of the nine states without a wage income tax (Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, New Hampshire), this line will show $0.00. For workers in states with income tax, this line reflects withholding per the state's employer withholding schedule — a separate calculation from federal withholding, using the state's own brackets, standard deduction equivalent, and pay-period conversion tables.

Some states also show separate lines for state-specific deductions: California's SDI (1.1%), New Jersey's FLI and DI, New York's Paid Family Leave deduction, and Washington's PFML contribution all appear as distinct lines on residents' pay stubs.

Pre-tax deductions are benefit contributions subtracted from your gross wages before income tax is calculated. Common examples include traditional 401k contributions, Health Savings Account (HSA) deposits, Flexible Spending Account (FSA) elections, and the employee's share of employer-sponsored health insurance premiums (if the plan qualifies).

These deductions reduce Box 1 of your W-2 — the taxable wages reported to the IRS. By reducing taxable wages, they lower both federal and state income tax withholding in every paycheck. They do not reduce FICA taxes — Social Security and Medicare apply to gross wages before pre-tax deductions. A Roth 401k contribution, by contrast, does not reduce your taxable wages and will not change your income tax withholding; it appears as a post-tax deduction on your stub.

Post-tax deductions are subtracted after all taxes are calculated. Common examples include Roth 401k contributions, supplemental life insurance premiums above the excludable limit, wage garnishments, union dues, and charitable payroll giving programs. These deductions reduce your net pay but do not change your tax withholding calculations.

Most pay stubs include a YTD (year-to-date) column alongside the current-period amounts. YTD columns track cumulative figures since January 1 of the current year. They serve two purposes: letting you monitor annual progress toward benefit limits and helping you reconcile your pay stub with your W-2 at year-end.

At year-end, your YTD gross wages should align closely with Box 1 of your W-2 (after pre-tax deductions). YTD Social Security wages should match Box 3. YTD Medicare wages should match Box 5. If the numbers differ by more than rounding, contact your payroll department — a discrepancy can affect your tax return.

Net pay — sometimes labeled "check amount" or "deposit amount" — is the number that arrives in your bank account. It equals gross pay minus all taxes, minus all pre-tax deductions, minus all post-tax deductions. For a typical middle-income worker with no pre-tax benefits, net pay is typically 65–80% of gross pay, depending on state, filing status, and income level.

Want to see the exact calculation for your salary before your next paycheck? Use the ExactTakeHome paycheck calculator — enter your gross salary, filing status, state, and pay frequency to get an accurate line-by-line breakdown.

What is YTD on a pay stub?

YTD stands for year-to-date. The YTD columns on your pay stub show the running total of gross earnings, taxes withheld, and deductions since January 1 of the current year. At year-end, your YTD figures should match your W-2 amounts in Boxes 1 through 4 and 16 through 17.

Why is my net pay so much less than my gross salary?

The difference between gross and net pay reflects all payroll taxes and deductions: federal income tax (withheld per IRS Pub 15-T), Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%), state income tax, and any pre-tax benefit deductions (health insurance, 401k, HSA). For a typical middle-income worker, take-home pay is usually 65-80% of gross salary depending on state and elections.

What does it mean when my Social Security line goes to zero?

Once your year-to-date wages reach the Social Security wage base ($184,500 in 2026), Social Security tax withholding stops for the remainder of the year. This is called reaching the Social Security wage cap. Your gross-to-net calculation effectively improves for the last few paychecks of the year.