Every line on a pay stub, and what moves it

Every stub, whatever payroll system printed it, runs the same subtraction in the same order: gross pay, minus pre-tax deductions, minus taxes, minus after-tax deductions, equals net pay. The labels change from employer to employer. The order does not, and the order is what decides which taxes a deduction saves you.

Below is the Example Co. stub from our homepage, read top to bottom. The figures are made up; the mechanics are not.

Block 1: Earnings

The earnings block is hours or salary multiplied by a rate, plus anything paid on top.

• Regular pay — 80.00 hours at $28.00 = $2,240.00. For salaried staff it is the annual salary divided by the number of pay periods, which is why biweekly and semimonthly pay produce different checks from the same salary.
• Overtime — 4.00 hours at $42.00, which is 1.5 × $28.00. Federal overtime is counted per workweek, not per pay period; the salaried-but-not-exempt version is where people get shorted.
• Bonus — $250.00, flagged as supplemental wages. That flag changes how federal tax is withheld on it; see bonus withholding.

Add them up and you get gross pay: $2,658.00. Nothing has been taken out yet.

Block 2: Pre-tax deductions

These come out before taxes are calculated, so they shrink the wages that tax applies to. On this stub there is one: a $96.00 health premium taken through a Section 125 (cafeteria) plan.

Pre-tax is not one category. It has two levels:

Deduction type	Lowers federal income tax wages?	Lowers Social Security and Medicare wages?
Section 125 health, dental, vision premium	Yes	Yes
Traditional 401(k) or 403(b) deferral	Yes	No
Roth 401(k) deferral	No	No

So a 401(k) contribution lowers federal withholding but still pays the full 7.65%. IRS Publication 15 and 15-B list how each benefit is treated.

Block 3: Taxes

Four lines on our stub. Two are flat percentages; two depend on forms you filled in.

Social Security — $158.84

6.2% of Social Security wages, which here are $2,658.00 − $96.00 = $2,562.00. It stops for the year once your wages reach the wage base — $184,500 for 2026, per the Social Security Administration. If you have two jobs, each employer withholds up to the base separately and you get any excess back when you file.

Medicare — $37.15

1.45% of the same $2,562.00, with no wage cap. Once wages from one employer pass $200,000 in a calendar year, the employer must withhold an extra 0.9% (Additional Medicare Tax) on the amount above it.

Federal withholding — $201.30

This is the line people argue with, and the only one that is not a flat rate. It comes from your Form W-4, your pay frequency and the tables in IRS Publication 15-T. On our stub it is a placeholder, not a table lookup. Withholding is a prepayment, not your tax; the real number is settled on your return.

State tax — $98.40

Set by your state's own rates and, in most states that tax wages, its own withholding form. A handful of states have no wage income tax at all. Your state revenue department publishes its withholding tables. Some cities and counties add a local line here too.

Taxes withheld total: $495.69.

Block 4: After-tax deductions

These come out last, from money that has already been taxed.

• Voluntary benefits — $12.40. Accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity and similar policies, usually after-tax. Explained here.
• Garnishment — $75.00. A court- or agency-ordered withholding, capped by federal and state law and calculated on disposable earnings. Garnishment lines covers the caps.

After-tax deductions total: $87.40.

The bottom line, literally

$2,658.00 − $96.00 − $495.69 − $87.40 = $1,978.91 net pay.

If your own stub doesn't reconcile when you do this by hand, the gap is almost always one of three things: a deduction that is pre-tax for income tax but not for FICA (the 401(k) case), an employer-paid benefit printed for information only, or imputed income — a non-cash benefit added to wages so it can be taxed, then not paid out.

What moves each line, at a glance

Line	Moves when
Regular pay	Rate change, hours, unpaid leave, pay frequency
Overtime	Hours over 40 in a workweek (non-exempt)
Bonus	Paid on the employer's schedule; withheld differently
Pre-tax premium	Open enrollment, a qualifying life event, a new job
Social Security	Gross or pre-tax deductions change; stops at the wage base
Medicare	Same; extra 0.9% over $200,000 with one employer
Federal withholding	New W-4, pay frequency, supplemental pay, IRS table updates in January
State tax	State form, move to another state, annual table updates
After-tax deductions	New election, new order, a policy ending

Keep your first January stub each year. Table updates land then, and comparing it to December shows which line moved.