How to read your payslip

A payslip can look like a wall of abbreviations, but almost every one in the world follows the same logic: start with gross, list the deductions, arrive at net. Once you know what the rows mean, you can check it in under a minute — and catch the surprisingly common errors. Here is what to look for, whichever country you are in.

The three numbers that matter most

• Gross pay— your total earnings for the period before deductions, sometimes split into basic pay, overtime and bonuses.
• Deductions— the taxes and contributions taken off (detailed below).
• Net pay— the bottom line: what actually transfers to your bank account.

The deductions, line by line

The labels change by country, but the categories are consistent:

• Income tax— PAYE in the UK, federal/state withholding in the US, impôt (PAS) in France, Lohnsteuer in Germany, IRPF in Spain.
• Social contributions— National Insurance, FICA, cotisations, Sozialversicherung or Seguridad Social, depending on where you are.
• Pension— your contribution, and often a separate line showing your employer’s contribution (which is not deducted from you).
• Other— student-loan repayments, healthcare, union dues, or salary- sacrifice items.

Don’t ignore the small print

Two details repay a glance every month. First, your year-to-date (YTD) totals — cumulative gross, tax and net — which reveal trends a single payslip hides. Second, in the UK, your tax code: a wrong one is the most common cause of over- or under-payment, and it sits right on the payslip. See UK tax codes explained if yours looks unfamiliar.

How to sanity-check it

The quickest test is to compare your net pay against an independent estimate for your salary. Put your gross into the take-home pay calculator for your country — UK, US, Germany, France or Spain— and see whether the deductions line up. If your payslip is materially different and you cannot explain it from a pension, student loan, bonus or wrong tax code, it is worth raising with payroll. For the bigger picture of what is being deducted and why, start with gross vs net salary.