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PAY STUB · 2026

Pay Stub Calculator — Check Every Line on Your Stub

This pay stub calculator rebuilds one pay period line by line — gross pay, federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, state withholding, your deductions and the net that should land in your account — with year-to-date totals beside each one. Enter the figures your employer used and compare. A paycheck stub calculator, a check stub calculator and a pay stub tax calculator are all this same tool.

Pay Stub Calculator
Check every line on your pay stub
Net pay this period
$1,822.89
72.9% of gross · year to date $30,989.15 after 17 of 26 periods
Gross pay$2,500.00 · YTD $42,500.00
Pre-tax deductions−$150.00 · YTD $2,550.00
Federal income tax−$198.15 · YTD $3,368.62
Social Security (6.2%)−$145.70 · YTD $2,476.90
Medicare (1.45%)−$34.08 · YTD $579.28
State income tax−$78.63 · YTD $1,336.71
State payroll programmes−$30.55 · YTD $519.35
Post-tax deductions−$40.00 · YTD $680.00
Net pay$1,822.89 · YTD $30,989.15

State method: CA Method B + 1.3% SDI. Every line is an estimate built from published 2026 federal and state withholding methods — your employer’s payroll system may round differently or apply elections this form does not capture. This tool checks the arithmetic on a stub you already have; it does not create a pay stub, which only an employer can issue.

READING THE STUB

What Each Line on a Pay Stub Actually Is

A pay stub has four blocks, and almost every question about one comes from confusing two of them. Gross pay is everything you earned in the period before anything is removed. Pre-tax deductions — traditional 401(k), health premiums, HSA, FSA — come out next, and they reduce the wage the tax lines are computed on. Taxes are then withheld on what is left. Post-tax deductions such as Roth contributions, union dues, garnishments and most insurance top-ups come out last and change nothing about the tax.

That ordering is why a $200 pre-tax deduction costs you less than $200 of take-home pay and a $200 post-tax deduction costs you exactly $200. It is also why your final stub’s YTD gross will not match Box 1 of your W-2: Box 1 is taxable wages, which is gross minus the pre-tax block.

THE TAX LINES

Federal, FICA and State — Three Different Rules on One Stub

Federal income taxis not a percentage of your paycheck. Payroll annualises the period’s taxable wage, runs it through the IRS percentage method using your W-4, then divides back down. That is why a period containing a bonus is withheld so heavily — it is annualised as though the bonus repeated every period.

Social Security is a flat 6.2% up to the annual wage base, then it stops entirely; Medicare is 1.45% on everything with an extra 0.9% above $200,000. Neither is reduced by a 401(k) contribution, which is the one pre-tax deduction people expect to shrink FICA and it never does.

Statevaries more than the other two combined. Nine states take no income tax on wages at all; Pennsylvania takes a flat rate from the first dollar; Arizona lets you pick your own percentage. And in several states the state column is not income tax — Washington’s Paid Leave and WA Cares, California’s SDI, Oregon’s transit tax and Alaska’s employee unemployment contribution are separate programmes that this calculator reports on their own line.

WHEN THEY DISAGREE

Your Stub and This Pay Stub Calculator Disagree — Now What

Work down the lines in order and stop at the first one that differs; everything below it will be wrong as a consequence. If gross differs, the period dates or hours are the issue, not tax. If pre-tax differs, check whether a benefit is being deducted that you forgot to enter. If only federaldiffers, the W-4 on file is the usual culprit — particularly the multiple-jobs box and any extra amount on line 4(c).

If only the stateline differs, the cause is almost always a state withholding certificate you never filed. Several states will not accept the federal W-4 and default you to a treatment that over-withholds — Connecticut defaults to its top rate when no CT-W4 is on file, and Oregon defaults to a flat 8%. A local or city tax this tool does not model will also show up here: Ohio municipalities and school districts, Pennsylvania’s local EIT, Maryland’s county tax, Michigan and Missouri city taxes, and Kentucky’s occupational taxes all ride on the paycheck.

A difference of a dollar or two is normal and not worth chasing: some states round each period to whole dollars, and employers differ in whether they annualise first or compute the period directly.

WHAT THIS IS NOT

This Tool Does Not Create a Pay Stub

A pay stub is a record of wages an employer actually paid. Only an employer can issue one, and anyone who needs to verify your income — a mortgage underwriter, a landlord, a benefits office — checks it against the employer or against your W-2 and tax transcript. Documents produced to look like stubs for wages that were never paid are treated as fraud in exactly those settings.

What this calculator is for: checking that the stub you were given adds up, working out what your take-home will be before accepting an offer, and seeing what changing a deduction would do to your net pay. If you need a copy of a real stub, your employer or payroll provider can reissue it; if you need to prove income without one, a W-2, a 1099 or an IRS wage and income transcript is what institutions actually accept.

FAQ

Pay Stub Calculator — Frequently Asked Questions

What does a pay stub calculator do?+

It rebuilds the arithmetic on a single pay stub: gross pay for the period, each withholding line, your deductions, and the net that should reach your account. Enter the same figures your employer used and the result should match your stub within a dollar or two. A gap bigger than that is worth asking payroll about.

Can this generate a pay stub for me?+

No. A pay stub is a record of wages an employer actually paid, and only an employer can issue one. This tool checks the maths on a stub you already have, or shows what a stub should look like at a given salary. Creating a document that claims to be a pay stub for wages nobody paid is fraud in most contexts where a stub is requested — lenders, landlords and benefit agencies all verify them with the employer.

Why does my pay stub not match this calculator?+

The usual causes, in rough order of frequency: a state withholding certificate on file that differs from what you entered, pre-tax benefits that reduce taxable wages before withholding is computed, a local or city tax this tool does not know about, an employer that rounds per period rather than annualising, and extra withholding you requested on line 4(c) of your W-4. Mid-year pay changes also shift the annualised figure your employer is using.

What do the YTD columns on a pay stub mean?+

Year to date — the running total for each line since 1 January, regardless of when you were hired. Checking YTD is more useful than checking one period, because a single period can be distorted by a bonus, retroactive pay or a mid-year rate change while the YTD column smooths all of that out.

What should appear on a pay stub?+

Pay period dates, hours if you are paid hourly, gross pay, each tax withheld shown separately, each deduction shown separately, net pay, and year-to-date totals for all of it. Requirements vary by state — some require employers to provide an itemised statement every period, a few have no statutory requirement at all.

Is the state line on my stub only income tax?+

Not always. Several states withhold payroll-programme premiums that are not income tax: Washington takes Paid Leave and WA Cares, California takes SDI, Oregon takes transit tax, Paid Leave and a Workers' Benefit Fund assessment, and Alaska takes an employee unemployment contribution. This calculator shows those on a separate line so the two are not confused.

How do I check my stub against my W-2 at the end of the year?+

Your final stub's YTD gross will usually be higher than Box 1 of your W-2, because pre-tax deductions such as 401(k) and health premiums reduce taxable wages but not gross pay. YTD federal tax should match Box 2 exactly. If it does not, the difference is worth resolving before you file.

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