What Is a Pay Stub? A Complete Guide

A pay stub — also called a paystub, check stub, paycheck stub, earnings statement or payslip — is a document that breaks down what someone was paid for a specific pay period. It shows gross pay, the hours and rate behind it, every tax withheld, any pre-tax or post-tax deductions, and the final net (take-home) pay, usually alongside year-to-date totals for each figure.

Employers are required to give employees some form of pay stub in most states, either on paper or through a payroll portal. If you never received one, lost it, or need a copy for a period before you had online access, you can recreate one that shows the same information as long as you know your actual pay details.

A complete pay stub has five parts: employer and employee information (names, address, sometimes an employee ID), earnings (regular hours, overtime, bonuses, each with a rate and amount), taxes withheld (federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and state tax where applicable), deductions (401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums, wage garnishments), and net pay — what actually lands in the bank account.

Accurate tax withholding is the part people get wrong most often when trying to reconstruct one. Federal withholding follows IRS Publication 15-T's percentage method based on the employee's W-4; Social Security and Medicare (FICA) are flat percentages up to a wage base; state withholding varies enormously — nine states charge no income tax at all, and the rest range from a flat few percent to progressive brackets over 10%.

Landlords and property managers ask for recent pay stubs to verify a rental applicant's income. Lenders want them for mortgage and auto loan underwriting. Some visa and benefits applications require them. And plenty of people just want a record for their own files — freelancers converting 1099 income into a pay-stub-style summary, gig workers who never get one from Uber or DoorDash, and small business owners running their own payroll without expensive software.

If your employer uses payroll software, check for an employee portal first — most (ADP, Gusto, Paychex, QuickBooks Payroll) keep historical stubs available to log in and download any time. If that's not an option, or you're self-employed and never had one to begin with, an online pay stub generator that calculates real federal and state withholding — not a rough estimate — can produce one from your actual numbers in a couple of minutes.