Eight pay stub templates for US employers paying real wages to real employees: basic, hourly with overtime, salaried, PTO balances, a California section 226 version, a contractor statement, plus an XLSX calculator and a year-to-date register. Fill-in-the-blank DOCX and XLSX. No signup.
A pay stub template is the fill-in-the-blank version of the earnings statement that goes out with each paycheck. If you run payroll by hand, without dedicated software, the template is what keeps every stub consistent: the same sections, in the same order, with nothing quietly missing. And what counts as missing is not a matter of taste. It is set by your state, and the requirements differ more than most employers expect.
There are eight templates here, covering the situations employers actually run into: a basic stub, hourly with overtime, salaried, one with PTO and sick leave balances, a version built to California's nine-item standard, a contractor payment statement, plus a spreadsheet calculator and a year-to-date register. Six download as Word documents, two as Excel workbooks, free and without an email.
TL;DR
A pay stub template is a reusable earnings statement an employer fills in each pay period: employer and employee details, pay period, hours and rates, gross pay, itemized deductions, net pay, and year-to-date totals. There is no federal pay stub mandate, only a federal recordkeeping duty. Eight states require nothing; the other 42 do, in four different delivery formats. Download eight free templates as DOCX and XLSX. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
What a Pay Stub Template Is
A pay stub template is a reusable document that lays out the standard sections of an earnings statement so you only have to supply the numbers. It is an employer tool for recording wages actually paid, which is a different thing from the income-verification generators that also rank for this search.
The terms are interchangeable, which is worth saying plainly because searchers use all of them. A pay stub, a paycheck stub, a check stub, and a payroll stub all mean the same document. California statute calls it an itemized wage statement. Whatever the label, the content requirements are what matter.
What Federal Law Actually Requires
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to keep payroll records, including hours worked each day and week, the basis of pay, regular hourly rate, and total earnings, but it requires no particular form and does not require issuing the employee a stub (U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet 21). Payroll records must be kept at least three years. The obligation to hand employees a stub comes from state law instead.
What Goes on a Pay Stub
A complete pay stub answers four questions: who was paid and for what period, what they earned, what was taken out, and what actually landed. The exact required fields depend on your state, but the set below is the consensus that satisfies most of them.
Who and when
Legal employer name and address
Employee name and an identifier
Pay period start and end dates
Pay date and payment method
What was earned
Hours worked, for non-exempt staff
Every applicable rate, listed separately
Overtime hours and overtime rate
Gross wages for the period
What was withheld
Federal income tax
Social Security and Medicare
State and any local income tax
Insurance, retirement, garnishments
What was actually paid
Net pay for the period
Year-to-date gross and deductions
Year-to-date net pay
Leave balances where required
Two fields get skipped most often and cause the most trouble. The first is itemizing deductions individually instead of showing one combined figure for taxes. The second is listing every applicable rate separately when an employee worked at more than one rate during the period, which several states treat as a distinct requirement rather than a formatting preference.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick by how the person is paid. Hourly staff need the overtime version, salaried staff the salary version, and anyone in a state that requires leave balances on the stub needs the PTO version. If you operate in California, start from the section 226 template rather than adapting a generic one.
Basic Pay Stub
The default
Every field a standard stub needs and nothing more: employer and employee details, pay period, gross, itemized deductions, net, and year to date. Start here if you just need a clean, correct stub.
Hourly with Overtime
Non-exempt staff
Separate lines for every rate paid during the period, plus overtime, shift differential, and total hours. Built for the states that require each applicable rate and its hours to appear separately.
Salaried Employee
Fixed pay per period
Salary for the period rather than hours times rate, with an exempt or non-exempt classification field and an hours line that stays in play for salaried non-exempt workers.
With PTO Balance
Leave visible on the stub
Adds accrued, used, and available balances for paid time off and paid sick leave. Several state sick leave laws require the available balance to appear on the stub or a notice issued with it.
California (Section 226)
The strictest standard
Every field mapped to one of the nine items California Labor Code section 226 requires, including the last four digits of the SSN or an employee ID and the available sick leave balance. Build to this and you generally clear other states.
Contractor Statement
1099, not a pay stub
For independent contractors, who are not on payroll and get no withholding. Gross equals net, with a backup withholding line and a running year-to-date total for Form 1099-NEC reporting.
Pay Stub Calculator
Spreadsheet, auto math
An XLSX worksheet that walks gross to net line by line, with the exact formula to paste into each Amount cell and a second tab holding the current federal rates and limits.
Year to Date Register
Every period in one sheet
An XLSX register logging each pay period across the year, with a totals tab that rolls up gross, each tax, and net. This is where the year-to-date figures on your stubs come from.
When in Doubt, Build to the Strictest Standard
If you are unsure which fields your state requires, or you employ people in more than one state, use the California template as your base. It maps to the nine items required under Labor Code section 226, which is the most demanding widely cited standard in the country, so a stub built to it will generally clear the requirements elsewhere. The only cost is a few extra fields you may not strictly need. That is a much cheaper mistake than a missing one. This is general information, not legal advice.
8 Free Pay Stub Templates
Download all eight together or grab the one you need. Six are Word documents you fill in per pay period. Two are Excel workbooks: a calculator that walks gross down to net, and a register that logs every period across the year so your year-to-date figures come from somewhere real rather than being retyped.
Download All 8 Pay Stub Templates
Basic, hourly, salary, PTO, California, and contractor stubs as DOCX, plus a calculator and YTD register as XLSX. All in one download.
Template 1: Basic Pay Stub
Every field a standard stub needs and nothing more. Employer and employee details, pay period, gross pay, itemized deductions, net pay, and year-to-date totals. Start here if you just need a clean, correct stub.
NOTE: This is a sample template for general information only and is not legal or
tax advice. Pay stub content requirements are set by state law and vary. Confirm
what your state requires before you use this with employees.
Template 2: Hourly Pay Stub with Overtime
Separate lines for each rate paid during the period, plus overtime, shift differential, and total hours worked. Built for non-exempt employees and for the states that require every applicable rate to appear on its own line.
Salary for the period instead of hours times rate, with an exempt or non-exempt classification field. The hours line stays because salaried non-exempt employees still earn overtime and often need hours shown.
Hours worked this period (required for non-exempt employees):
DEDUCTIONS
Federal income tax: $
Social Security: $
Medicare: $
State income tax: $
Local tax (if any): $
Health insurance: $
Retirement contribution: $
Other: $
TOTAL DEDUCTIONS: $
NET PAY
Gross pay: $ Less deductions: $ NET PAY: $
YEAR TO DATE
YTD gross: $ YTD deductions: $ YTD net: $
CLASSIFICATION NOTE: Being paid a salary does not by itself make someone exempt
from overtime. Exempt status depends on the salary level and the actual duties
performed. A salaried non-exempt employee still earns overtime, and several
states require their hours worked to appear on the pay stub.
NOTE: This is a sample template for general information only and is not legal or
tax advice. Confirm classification and state requirements before use.
Template 4: Pay Stub with PTO Balance
Adds accrued, used, and available balances for paid time off and paid sick leave alongside the earnings detail. Useful anywhere, and required in the states whose sick leave laws put the balance on the stub.
SICK LEAVE NOTE: A number of states with paid sick leave laws require the
available sick leave balance to be shown on the pay stub or on a written notice
issued with it. If you operate in one of those states, the leave section above is
not optional. Check your state rule.
NOTE: This is a sample template for general information only and is not legal or
tax advice. Confirm your state requirements before use.
Template 5: California Compliant Pay Stub
Every field mapped to one of the nine items California Labor Code section 226 requires, including an employee identifier that is not the full Social Security number and the available paid sick leave balance.
California Compliant Pay Stub
[Company Name]
[Company Street Address]
[City, State ZIP]
ITEMIZED WAGE STATEMENT
California Labor Code section 226 requires nine specific items on every wage
statement. Each numbered field below maps to one of them. This is the strictest
common standard in the country, so a stub built to it will generally satisfy
other states as well.
EMPLOYER (ITEM 9)
Legal name of the employer:
Employer address:
EMPLOYEE (ITEM 7 AND ITEM 8)
Employee name:
Last four digits of SSN or employee ID number:
Do not print the full Social Security number. The statute calls for the last four
digits or an employee identification number, not the whole number.
PAY PERIOD (ITEM 6)
Inclusive dates of the pay period: to
Pay date:
HOURS AND RATES (ITEM 2, ITEM 3, ITEM 9)
Total hours worked (not required for exempt salaried employees):
List every applicable hourly rate and the hours worked at each rate.
Rate 1: hours at $ per hour = $
Rate 2: hours at $ per hour = $
Overtime: hours at $ per hour = $
Piece-rate units earned: Piece rate: $
GROSS WAGES EARNED (ITEM 1)
GROSS WAGES THIS PERIOD: $
ALL DEDUCTIONS, ITEMIZED (ITEM 4)
Federal income tax: $
Social Security: $
Medicare: $
California state income tax: $
California SDI: $
Health insurance: $
Retirement contribution: $
Other authorized deduction: $
TOTAL DEDUCTIONS: $
NET WAGES EARNED (ITEM 5)
NET WAGES THIS PERIOD: $
PAID SICK LEAVE
Paid sick leave available: hours
California requires available paid sick leave to be shown on the wage statement
or on a separate written notice issued with the paycheck.
RECORDKEEPING NOTE: Keep a copy of each wage statement for at least three years
at the place of employment or a central location in California, and respond to
current or former employee requests to inspect or copy within 21 days.
NOTE: This is a sample template for general information only and is not legal
advice. California wage statement litigation is common and the details matter.
Have counsel review your stub format before you rely on it.
Template 6: Contractor Payment Statement
For independent contractors, who are not on payroll. No withholding, gross equals net, with a backup withholding line and a running annual total for Form 1099-NEC reporting.
Contractor Payment Statement (1099)
[Company Name]
[Company Street Address]
[City, State ZIP]
CONTRACTOR PAYMENT STATEMENT
This is not a pay stub. Independent contractors are not on payroll, so there is
no wage withholding and no employer tax match. This statement documents what was
paid for services rendered under a contract.
PAYER
Business name:
Business address:
Contact for payment questions:
CONTRACTOR
Contractor or business name:
Contractor address:
Taxpayer identification number on file (last four digits):
An Excel worksheet that walks gross down to net line by line. The last column gives the exact formula to paste into each Amount cell, and a second tab holds the current federal rates, limits, and retention minimums.
Pay Stub Calculator
A
B
C
D
E
1
Line item
Hours
Rate
Amount
Formula to enter in Amount
2
Regular pay
=B2*C2
3
Overtime pay
=B3*C3
4
Other earnings (bonus, tips, commission)
Enter the amount directly
5
GROSS PAY
=D2+D3+D4
6
Federal income tax
From IRS Publication 15-T and the employee Form W-4
7
Social Security
=D5*0.062
8
Medicare
=D5*0.0145
9
State income tax
Per your state withholding schedule
10
Other deductions (insurance, retirement)
Enter the amount directly
11
TOTAL DEDUCTIONS
=SUM(D6:D10)
12
NET PAY
=D5-D11
Template 8: Year to Date Payroll Register (XLSX)
A register logging each pay period across the year, with a totals tab that rolls up gross, each tax, and net. This is where the year-to-date figures on your stubs should come from.
Year to Date Payroll Register
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
1
Pay date
Pay period
Regular hours
OT hours
Gross pay
Federal tax
Social Security
Medicare
State tax
Other deductions
Net pay
2
SAMPLE 01/15/2026
01/01 to 01/15
80
4
2150
215
133.3
31.18
86
120
1564.52
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Pay Stub Rules by State
Because there is no federal mandate, whether you must issue a pay stub, and how you may deliver it, is decided entirely by state law. States sort into five groups, and the difference between them is delivery format rather than content.
No requirement
8 states
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Tennessee have no law requiring you to hand employees a pay stub. Federal payroll recordkeeping still applies, and issuing stubs anyway remains the sensible default.
Access states
The largest group
You must give employees access to their pay information each period. Electronic delivery through a portal or emailed file generally satisfies this, as long as employees can actually reach it.
Access and print
Includes California and Texas
Electronic delivery is acceptable, but employees must be able to print a copy. A portal that blocks downloads or printing does not meet the standard in these states.
Opt-out states
Delaware, Minnesota, Oregon
Paper is the default. You may move an employee to electronic delivery, but they keep the right to request a paper stub instead, and you have to honor it.
Opt-in state
Hawaii only
The reverse of opt-out. You need the employee written consent before you can deliver stubs electronically at all. Without that consent, paper is mandatory.
Ohio Is No Longer a No-Requirement State
Most published state charts still list nine states with no pay stub requirement and include Ohio among them. That has been wrong since April 9, 2025, when the Pay Stub Protection Act took effect and added section 4113.14 to the Ohio Revised Code, requiring every employer to provide an earnings and deductions statement each pay period (Ohio Department of Commerce). The correct count is eight states with no requirement. If you employ people in Ohio and you are working from an older chart, you are working from bad information.
Illinois tightened its rules on the same timeline. Effective January 1, 2025, Public Act 103-0953 amended the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act to define a pay stub as an itemized statement showing hours worked, rate of pay, overtime pay and overtime hours, gross wages, deductions, and year-to-date totals for wages and deductions. Illinois employers must issue one each pay period, keep copies for three years from the date of payment even after the employee leaves, and respond to a request within 21 days. Employees may request copies up to twice in a 12-month period, and violations carry a civil penalty of up to $500.
California remains the strictest content standard. Labor Code section 226 lists nine mandatory items, and the state Division of Labor Standards Enforcement enforces them closely. Statutory penalties run $50 for the initial pay period in which a violation occurs and $100 per employee for each subsequent pay period, capped at $4,000, with costs and attorney fees on top, and a separate $750 penalty for failing to produce records within 21 days of a request. Worth knowing: those statutory penalties require the violation to have been knowing and intentional, which gives a good-faith employer some room that headline figures rarely mention.
How to Calculate Deductions
Work top down. Total the earnings to get gross pay, apply each withholding in order, then subtract to reach net. Federal income tax is looked up rather than calculated from a flat rate, which is the step people most often get wrong.
Line
2026 rate or basis
What to watch
Gross pay
Regular plus overtime plus other earnings
Non-discretionary bonuses raise the regular rate used for overtime
Federal income tax
Per IRS withholding tables
Depends on the Form W-4 and pay frequency, not a flat percentage
Social Security
6.2% of gross
Stops once the employee reaches $184,500 in wages for the year
Medicare
1.45% of gross
No wage cap. Add 0.9% on wages above $200,000, employee only
State income tax
Per state schedule
Nine states have no wage income tax at all
Voluntary deductions
Per employee election
Health premiums, retirement, and garnishments listed separately
Net pay
Gross minus total deductions
This is the figure that should match the deposit
Where the FICA Numbers Come From
For 2026 the Social Security portion is 6.2 percent on earnings up to a taxable maximum of $184,500, and the Medicare portion is 1.45 percent on all earnings with no cap, plus an additional 0.9 percent on earned income above $200,000 (Social Security Administration). The employer matches the 6.2 and 1.45 but not the additional 0.9, and the employer match does not appear on the employee stub. This is general information, not tax advice.
The calculator template handles the arithmetic once you enter hours and rates, and its second tab keeps these figures in front of you. What it cannot do is decide whether a worker is exempt or whether a bonus belongs in the regular rate. Those are judgment calls, and both are common sources of payroll mistakes.
Contractors Do Not Get Pay Stubs
Independent contractors are not on payroll, so there is no withholding and no pay stub in the legal sense. A contractor invoices and receives the contracted amount in full, which means gross equals net. The only routine exception is backup withholding when a valid taxpayer identification number was not furnished.
You can still give a contractor a payment statement documenting what was paid, and template 6 does exactly that, but the label matters. Calling it a payment statement rather than a pay stub keeps the record honest and avoids implying a payroll relationship that does not exist. Handing someone a document that looks like a pay stub has no effect on their status either way, since classification turns on the actual working relationship, not the paperwork.
The Self-Employed Proof-of-Income Case
A large share of searches for contractor pay stub templates come from self-employed people who need to document income for a landlord or lender, not from businesses paying contractors. If that is you and the income is real, the honest documents are your invoices, bank deposits, a signed contract, and your tax return, which is what most lenders actually want. Manufacturing a pay stub for a payroll relationship that does not exist misrepresents your situation even when the dollar figure is accurate. Template 6 is a record of payments a business made, not an income generator.
Legal Use and the Line You Should Not Cross
Creating your own pay stubs is legal when you are the employer and the numbers are real. Federal rules set no particular form for payroll records, so building stubs from a template rather than from payroll software is entirely legitimate as long as the content meets your state requirements and the figures are accurate.
The line is fabrication. Producing a pay stub that overstates income, or that shows employment that did not happen, in order to obtain a loan, a lease, or a benefit is document fraud, with civil and criminal exposure that does not depend on which tool made the file. Every template on this page is built for an employer documenting wages actually paid to actual employees. None of them should be used to represent income that was not earned.
A pay stub is the document that decides a wage dispute you cannot otherwise win
When an employee says they were underpaid, the pay stub and the payroll record behind it are the evidence. Federal rules require you to keep payroll records for at least three years and the underlying time records for two, and where an employer cannot produce records, the employee account of hours worked tends to carry the day. Several states go further: California requires wage statement copies kept for three years and produced within 21 days of a request, and Illinois requires the same three-year retention with a 21-day response window. A stub you generated but never saved is only half the protection.
The template is free, but the arithmetic is where employers actually get hurt
Most pay stub mistakes are not formatting mistakes. They are a missed overtime rate because a non-discretionary bonus was left out of the regular rate, Social Security withheld past the annual wage base, or a salaried employee assumed to be exempt when their duties say otherwise. The templates here give you the correct structure and the current rates, but they do not check your math or your classifications. Run the numbers deliberately, and where a classification is genuinely unclear, get advice before the stub goes out rather than after.
Stubs are only useful if the whole record is findable a year later
Filling in a Word document works for one employee and falls apart across a team and a full year of pay periods. The stub, the signed direct deposit authorization, the deduction authorization, and the employee record all have to line up when someone asks a question or an agency does. This is the people-operations side FirstHR handles: employee profiles that hold the identifying details a stub needs, document management that stores signed payroll paperwork against the right person, and e-signature with a timestamp for the authorizations. To be clear about scope, FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so it does not run payroll, calculate withholding, or issue pay stubs. The templates below work on their own.
Issue, File, and Keep the Record
A pay stub is only doing its job if it goes out on time, in the format your state accepts, and the copy is still findable years later. That last part is the one most employers lose, and it is the part that matters during a dispute or an audit.
Gather the period data
Pull hours from your timesheets, confirm rates, and note any bonus, commission, or leave taken during the period.
Work gross down to net
Total the earnings, apply each withholding and deduction in order, then subtract to reach net pay.
Issue it with the payment
Deliver the stub on or before the pay date, in the format your state requires, whether that is electronic access, printable, or paper.
File and keep the copy
Store your copy against the employee record so you can produce it inside the response window if it is ever requested.
These templates work on their own. For the surrounding paperwork, FirstHR keeps the employee profile that holds the identifying details a stub needs, stores signed payroll documents like the direct deposit authorization and the deduction authorization against the right person with document management, and captures those signatures with a timestamp. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider and not a law firm: it does not run payroll, calculate withholding, or issue pay stubs, so pair it with your payroll provider or accountant for the money side. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
There is no federal pay stub mandate. Federal law requires payroll recordkeeping for at least three years, not issuing employees a statement.
Eight states require nothing: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Tennessee. The other 42 do.
Ohio left the no-requirement list on April 9, 2025. Most published state charts have not caught up.
California Labor Code section 226 is the strictest common standard at nine required items, so building to it generally clears other states.
Independent contractors are not on payroll and get no pay stub. Gross equals net, and a payment statement is the honest label.
Creating your own stubs is legal for an employer recording real wages. Fabricating one to overstate income is fraud. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a pay stub template?
A pay stub template is a reusable, fill-in-the-blank document an employer uses to produce the earnings statement that accompanies an employee paycheck. It lays out the standard sections in the right order: the employer name and address, the employee name and identifier, the pay period dates and pay date, hours worked and the rates paid, gross wages, every deduction itemized, net pay, and year-to-date totals. The template is the structure. You supply the numbers for each pay period. Employers who run payroll manually, without dedicated payroll software, use a template so that every stub comes out consistent and complete rather than being rebuilt from scratch each time. Since required content is set by state law and varies, the right template is one that covers the fields your state requires. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
Are employers required to provide pay stubs?
It depends entirely on your state, because there is no federal pay stub mandate. Federal law requires employers to keep accurate payroll records, but it does not require handing the employee a statement. Pay stub obligations come from state law instead. Eight states have no requirement at all: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Tennessee. The other 42 require some form of pay statement, though what they require varies. Some accept electronic access, some require that the electronic version be printable, some default to paper unless the employee opts into electronic, and Hawaii requires written consent before you can go electronic at all. Note that Ohio joined the requiring states in April 2025, which many published state charts have not yet corrected. This is general information, not legal advice.
Is it legal to create your own pay stub?
Yes, when you are the employer documenting wages you actually paid. Federal law sets no particular form for payroll records, so an employer generating pay stubs from a template rather than from payroll software is perfectly legitimate, as long as the content meets the applicable state requirements and the figures are accurate. The legal problem arises in a different scenario: an individual fabricating a pay stub to overstate their income to a lender, landlord, or agency. That is document fraud, and it can carry serious civil and criminal consequences regardless of what tool produced the document. The templates on this page are built for the first case, an employer recording real wages for real employees. They are not income-verification generators. This is general information, not legal advice.
What must a pay stub include?
The required fields vary by state, but the consensus set that satisfies most requirements is: the legal employer name and address, the employee name plus an identifier such as an employee ID or the last four digits of their Social Security number, the inclusive dates of the pay period, the pay date, total hours worked for non-exempt employees, every applicable pay rate with the hours worked at each, gross wages earned, all deductions itemized separately rather than lumped together, net wages, and year-to-date totals. California Labor Code section 226 is the strictest widely cited standard, requiring nine specific items, so a stub built to it will generally satisfy other states. Some states with paid sick leave laws also require the available leave balance to appear. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do 1099 contractors get pay stubs?
No. Independent contractors are not on payroll, so there is nothing to withhold and no pay stub in the legal sense. A contractor invoices for services and receives the full contracted amount, which means gross equals net. There is no federal income tax withholding, no Social Security or Medicare withheld from the payment, and no employer tax match. The common exception is backup withholding, which applies when the contractor has not furnished a valid taxpayer identification number. Businesses do sometimes issue contractors a payment statement documenting what was paid, and that is fine as a record, but it should be labeled as a payment statement rather than a pay stub. Importantly, issuing a contractor a document that looks like a pay stub does not affect their classification, which turns on the actual working relationship. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
Are electronic pay stubs legal?
In most states, yes, but the conditions differ and this is where employers most often slip. States generally fall into four groups. Access states let you deliver electronically as long as employees can actually reach their pay information. Access-and-print states, which include California and Texas, accept electronic delivery but require that employees be able to print a copy, so a portal that blocks downloads fails the test. Opt-out states such as Delaware, Minnesota, and Oregon default to paper and let an employee request paper even after you move to electronic. Hawaii is the only opt-in state, meaning you need the employee written consent before delivering electronically at all. Confirm which category your state falls into before switching your delivery method. This is general information, not legal advice.
How do you calculate deductions on a pay stub?
Work top down from gross pay. Start by totaling earnings: regular hours times the regular rate, overtime hours times the overtime rate, plus any bonus, commission, or tips. That total is gross pay. Then apply withholdings in order. Federal income tax comes from the IRS withholding tables based on the employee Form W-4 and your pay frequency, so it is looked up rather than calculated from a flat percentage. Social Security is 6.2 percent of gross up to the annual wage base, which is $184,500 for 2026, after which you stop withholding it. Medicare is 1.45 percent with no cap, plus an additional 0.9 percent on wages above $200,000 that the employee alone pays. Then subtract state and any local income tax and voluntary deductions such as insurance and retirement. Gross minus total deductions equals net pay. This is general information, not tax advice.
How long do you have to keep pay stub records?
At minimum, three years under federal rules, and longer in some states. Federal recordkeeping requires employers to preserve payroll records for at least three years, and the records that wage computations are based on, such as time cards and work schedules, for at least two years. Several states layer their own requirement on top. California requires a copy of each wage statement to be kept for three years at the place of employment or a central location in the state, and to be produced within 21 days of a current or former employee request. Illinois requires employers to retain pay stub copies for three years from the date of payment even if the employee has since left, and to fulfill requests within 21 days. Because state rules stack on federal ones, keeping records longer rather than shorter is the safer practice. This is general information, not legal advice.
