Reading a pay stub is not a matter of finding the big number at the bottom. It is five short checks, in a fixed order, that either agree or tell you where to ask a question. Work through them on your next stub and you will know within a minute whether it is worth trusting.
Check one: whose period is this?
Confirm the employer name, your name, and — the part people skip — the pay period and the pay date. They are two different dates. A stub for a period ending 31 August paid on 5 September is normal; a stub whose pay date falls inside the period it covers is either an advance or a typo, and a lender reviewing it will notice. If you are assembling consecutive stubs as proof of income, the period dates are what prove there are no gaps — see what a pay stub actually is for why that matters more than the layout.
Check two: does the earnings line have a basis?
A gross figure on its own is an assertion. A gross figure with a basis is a calculation anyone can repeat:
- Hourly. 62 hours × $24.00 = $1,488.00. The hours should come from a timesheet you can find, and the rate from an offer letter or pay-change notice.
- Salaried. $78,000 ÷ 26 periods = $3,000.00 for a bi-weekly employee. Divide by 24 for semi-monthly, 12 for monthly — the frequency label on the document is what tells you which divisor is right, which is why it is not decoration.
If the basis column is missing entirely, that is a stub worth questioning: the hourly pay stub guide covers how hours and rate are meant to appear, including overtime.
Check three: is every deduction a line of its own?
The deduction block should read like a list you could explain to someone else: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, state tax where applicable, then anything you elected — health premium, retirement contribution, garnishment. Each with an amount. A single line that says “Deductions $628.50” is not a pay stub; it is a net figure with an unexplained hole in the middle.
This is also where you spot the categories that should not be there. Legitimate deductions reduce taxable wages or are ones you authorised. Anything that looks like a charge for equipment, a uniform deposit, or a “processing fee” deducted from your pay is a question for the employer, not something to accept because it appeared on the document. The deductions guide sorts the three deduction categories and which ones change your taxable pay.
Check four: do the three totals reconcile?
| Line | What to do with it |
|---|---|
| Gross pay | Should equal the sum of the earnings lines, and match your basis calculation. |
| Total deductions | Should equal the sum of the deduction lines. Add them yourself once; it takes seconds. |
| Net pay | Gross minus total deductions — and it should match the deposit in your bank account. |
Those three are one equation. If you would rather see the worked version of it than read about it, net pay, step by step does the arithmetic in both directions, and the generator shows the same reconciliation live while you type — the totals are derived, never typed in, which is exactly the property you want when the document has to survive someone else’s check.
Check five: what is deliberately absent
Absences are information too. A stub carries no employer-side taxes, no benefit premiums, no year-to-date totals unless the software prints them, and it is not the annual summary — the W-2 is that, which is why comparing the two documents is worth two minutes if you have ever had a form rejected.
One practical note for anyone reading a stub months later: check what happens to a generated document after payment before you assume you can obtain it again. Some tools keep nothing; this one keeps a way back, and the rules for it are on the home page rather than buried in an account you do not have.