Guides
How pay stubs work, what the law asks for, and how to read the numbers on one.
- Error on your pay stub? What to do next
First work out whether the pay or only the statement was wrong, as the fixes differ. Then tell payroll in writing: the period and the figure you expected.
- Do you get a pay stub with direct deposit?
Yes, where your state requires one. Direct deposit changes delivery, and states differ on portals, printing, paper on request and access after you leave.
- Pay stub abbreviations
A lookup for the codes payroll prints instead of words, what each one means, and the one code most people cannot explain even after they look it up.
- Using a pay stub as proof of income
What a stub actually proves, how many of them each kind of requester wants, and which documents get checked behind it before anyone believes the number.
- Pay stub requirements for contractors
A 1099 contractor does not get a pay stub, and the reason is structural. What the payer issues instead, and when a stub becomes evidence against them.
- How long to keep pay stubs
Two different questions with two different answers: how long your employer must retain payroll records, and how long the stubs are worth anything to you.
- Pay stub deductions explained
Which deductions your employer must take, which ones it may take only with your permission, and the federal caps that decide how much can come out at all.
- Pay stub vs paycheck
One is the money and the other is the explanation of it. The distinction decides which document proves what, and which one your employer owes you separately.
- How to make pay stubs for employees
A walkthrough for a small employer issuing pay stubs: what you need before you start, how 2026 withholding works, and where small payrolls go wrong.
- How to read a pay stub
A line-by-line walkthrough of a US pay stub — what each deduction is, why the tax withheld is not a flat percentage, and how to check the numbers yourself.
- Pay stubs for the self-employed
Whether a self-employed person can issue their own pay stub, what changes if you run an S corporation, and what actually works as proof of income.
- What to include on a pay stub
The lines every pay stub needs, the ones your state adds on top, and the two items that get employers into trouble more often than anything else.