What Does a Pay Stub Look Like? Real 2026 Examples & Format Guide

A Real Pay Stub Has Five Sections

Whether you work for Walmart, Google, or a small construction firm, every legitimate U.S. pay stub contains the same five sections in roughly the same layout. Here is each section, what it must include, and what it looks like in a 2026 paystub.

Section 1 — Header (Employer & Employee Identity)

The top quarter of the stub identifies who paid whom:

• Employer name and address — must match what's on your W-2
• Employer EIN (Federal Employer Identification Number) — 9 digits, format XX-XXXXXXX
• Employee full legal name — matches your SSN records
• Employee SSN — usually masked as XXX-XX-1234 for privacy
• Pay period start and end date — e.g., "06/01/2026 – 06/14/2026"
• Pay date — when the money hits your bank (often a few days after period end)
• Check number or direct deposit reference

Section 2 — Earnings (Gross Pay Breakdown)

A table with one row per earnings type. Most stubs show four columns: description, hours/rate, current amount, and YTD amount.

If you're salaried, you'll usually see one "Salary" line with the bi-weekly or semi-monthly portion of your annual rate.

Section 3 — Taxes Withheld

Required for every paystub. The IRS sets the federal numbers; each state sets its own.

Federal income tax is calculated using your W-4 elections per IRS Publication 15-T — the 2026 tables use seven brackets from 10% to 37%.

Section 4 — Pre-Tax & Voluntary Deductions

Everything else that comes out of your paycheck — retirement, insurance, garnishments:

These reduce either your taxable wages (pre-tax) or your net deposit (post-tax). The W-2 Box 12 will reconcile most of these at year-end.

Section 5 — Net Pay & Summary

The final block summarizes the math:

• Gross Pay: $2,368.75
• Total Taxes: -$612.33
• Total Deductions: -$384.69
• Net Pay (deposit): $1,371.73

Plus the YTD net deposit total. Many stubs also list:

• Direct deposit account (last 4 digits)
• Available PTO/vacation balance
• Next pay date

What a Real Pay Stub Doesn't Have

If any of these are missing, the stub is incomplete or fake:

❌ No employer EIN

❌ No employee SSN (even masked)

❌ Round-number deductions ("$200" SS instead of $146.86)

❌ Federal tax = exactly 22% of gross (real withholding never matches a bracket exactly)

❌ YTD doesn't add up across periods

❌ Watermark says "SAMPLE" or "DRAFT"

Lenders, landlords, and the IRS spot these instantly. See our guide on fake pay stub consequences for why this matters.

Different Layouts You Might See

ADP Workforce Now — header bar with logo at top, two-column body (current vs YTD), totals in shaded footer.

Gusto — single-column mobile-friendly layout with collapsible sections.

Paychex Flex — left sidebar for employee info, right side for earnings/taxes tables.

QuickBooks Payroll — landscape orientation with all five sections side by side.

Custom employer stubs — usually built on Excel or Word templates; format varies wildly but content is the same.

The content is regulated; the visual format is not. 29 states require itemized statements and dictate what fields must appear, but no state mandates how the stub must look.

Download a Sample Pay Stub

Want to see a labeled real-world example? PayStub LLC's free preview lets you build a stub with your own numbers and see exactly how each section renders before downloading.

Bottom Line

A legitimate U.S. pay stub has five labeled sections — header, earnings, taxes, deductions, and net pay summary — with current and year-to-date columns for every line. If your stub is missing any section, ask payroll for an updated one. If you're generating your own, use a tool that auto-calculates 2026 federal and state withholding to match what a real employer's stub would show.