Notebook
Free and private. Easy to forget a shift, and you do the overtime math yourself.
What do pay stub abbreviations mean?
Pay stub abbreviations are short codes for three kinds of line: what you earned (REG, OT, HOL), taxes withheld (FIT, OASDI, MED, or CPP and EI in Canada) and other deductions you agreed to (401K, union dues). Read the earnings lines first: they are the ones you can check against your own hours.
Earnings you can check. Taxes you can ask about. Deductions you signed up for.
Pay stub questions people ask first
What do the letters on my pay stub mean?
Most are short codes for three things: what you earned (REG, OT, HOL), taxes taken out (FIT, OASDI, MED, or CPP and EI in Canada) and other deductions (401K, union dues). The glossary on this page lists 34 of them.
What is OASDI on my paycheck?
Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, better known as Social Security. The IRS says the employee rate is 6.2%, up to a yearly wage base ($184,500 for 2026).
What does YTD mean on a pay stub?
Year to date: the running total of that line since January 1. It is useful for checking that every pay period was actually counted.
Why is my net pay so much lower than my gross?
Net is gross minus income tax, Social Security, Medicare (or CPP and EI in Canada) and any deductions you signed up for. The gap is normal; whether each amount is right is a question for payroll or a tax professional.
Why is my overtime less than I expected?
Often because overtime is counted per workweek, not per pay period. The U.S. Department of Labor says hours cannot be averaged across two or more weeks. Ontario's threshold is 44 hours a week, not 40.
What is the difference between a tax and a deduction?
Taxes are required by law (income tax, Social Security, Medicare, CPP, EI). Deductions are usually things you chose or agreed to, like retirement savings, insurance premiums or union dues.
Can EarnCheck read my pay stub for me?
No. You type the figures from your statement into EarnCheck, and it compares gross with gross, line by line. It does not calculate taxes or deductions.
Pay stub decoder: type the code you see
- REGPay · US/CA
- Regular pay: your normal hours times your base rate.
- OTPay · US/CA
- Overtime pay. Hours over your overtime threshold, usually at 1.5 times your regular rate.
- DTPay · US/CA
- Double time: hours paid at twice your rate, where a law or agreement provides it.
- HOLPay · US/CA
- Holiday pay, or hours worked on a holiday, at whatever rate your employer or local rules set.
- STATPay · CA
- Statutory or public holiday pay (common on Canadian stubs).
- SHF DIFFPay · US/CA
- Shift differential: an extra amount per hour for nights, evenings or weekends.
- PTOPay · US
- Paid time off taken this period, paid at your regular rate.
- VACPay · US/CA
- Vacation pay: time off paid, or vacation pay paid out as a percentage.
- SICKPay · US/CA
- Paid sick time taken this period.
- RETROPay · US/CA
- Retroactive pay: money owed from an earlier period, such as a late raise.
- ADJPay · US/CA
- Adjustment: a correction up or down. Ask payroll what it fixes.
- BONUSPay · US/CA
- A one-off payment on top of hourly pay. It may be taxed differently.
- GROSSInfo · US/CA
- All earnings before anything is taken out.
- NETInfo · US/CA
- Take-home pay: gross minus taxes and deductions.
- YTDInfo · US/CA
- Year to date: the running total since January 1.
- HRSInfo · US/CA
- Hours paid on that line.
- RATEInfo · US/CA
- Pay per hour for that line.
- PPEInfo · US/CA
- Pay period ending: the last day of the period this stub covers.
- FIT / FED WHTax · US
- Federal income tax withheld, based on the Form W-4 you gave your employer.
- SIT / STTax · US
- State income tax withheld, in states that have one.
- LOCAL / CITYTax · US
- City, county or school district income tax, where it applies.
- OASDI / SSTax · US
- Social Security. Employees pay 6.2% of wages up to a yearly wage base.
- MED / MEDITax · US
- Medicare. Employees pay 1.45% of all wages, with no wage base limit.
- FICATax · US
- Social Security and Medicare together.
- SDITax · US
- State disability insurance, withheld in a few states.
- CPPTax · CA
- Canada Pension Plan contribution (Quebec stubs show QPP instead).
- CPP2Tax · CA
- Second additional CPP contribution, on earnings above the first ceiling.
- EITax · CA
- Employment Insurance premium.
- 401K / RRSPDeduction · US/CA
- Retirement savings you chose to put aside from your pay.
- HSA / FSADeduction · US
- Health savings or flexible spending account contributions.
- MED INS / DEN / VISDeduction · US/CA
- Your share of medical, dental or vision insurance premiums.
- UNIONDeduction · US/CA
- Union dues.
- GARNDeduction · US/CA
- Garnishment: an amount a court or agency ordered taken from pay.
- PRE-TAXDeduction · US
- A deduction taken before income tax is worked out, which lowers taxable wages.
Rates from the IRS Topic 751 on Social Security and Medicare withholding (2026) and About Form W-4. CPP and CPP2 from the Canada Revenue Agency CPP page. Codes vary by payroll provider; your stub may use other spellings.
If a code is not here, payroll can tell you what it means. Asking is normal.
The night-shift stub with 3.5 missing hours
Picture a warehouse worker on nights. Two weeks, 45 hours each week. The stub shows REG 83.50 and OT 6.50. All 90 hours are paid, but they were expecting 10 hours of overtime. Are 3.5 overtime hours missing?
Maybe not. If the employer's workweek starts on Wednesday and the shifts straddle it, the 90 hours can split into workweeks of 46.5 and 43.5, which gives exactly 6.5 hours of overtime. The U.S. Department of Labor overtime page says a workweek can begin on any day and hours cannot be averaged across weeks. In Ontario the overtime threshold is 44 hours a week, so the same schedule would show no overtime at all.
The right move is not to assume an error. Write down each shift, check which workweek it falls in, then ask payroll with the figures in hand.
A difference is something to review, not proof of a mistake.
Three ways to check your pay stub, compared
Spreadsheet
Flexible. You build the overtime rules, the workweek split and the premiums by hand.
EarnCheck
We make it. Confirm shifts in one tap, then compare regular, overtime and premiums with your statement. Deductions stay separate.
Honest limits
- This page explains common codes. It is not tax, legal or financial advice, and it cannot tell you whether your withholding is right.
- EarnCheck estimates gross pay from the hours and rules you enter. It does not calculate taxes or deductions and is not a payroll system.
- Free covers one job and a complete first pay period with unlimited shifts, weekly overtime and a payday comparison. EarnCheck Pro ($2.99 a month or $19.99 a year on the App Store) adds unlimited pay periods, multiple jobs, advanced overtime and premium rules, and full exports.
- One design decision: EarnCheck never counts deductions as missing pay, because mixing net and gross is the most common false alarm.
What a line-by-line pay check looks like
Download free on the App Store
Keep your own record of every shift, then check the earnings lines on your next stub. No account, no bank login.
Download EarnCheck free on the App Store
Updated November 2026
Related
- EarnCheck: the shift and pay tracker for iPhoneLog shifts, see your estimated gross pay with overtime, then compare it line by line with your pay statement. No account, no bank login.
- Worked 80+ hours in a pay period and got no overtime?Overtime is counted per workweek, not per two-week pay period. See why 80 hours can still owe overtime, and how to check your pay stub calmly.
- Home health aide timesheet printable, with travel timeA free printable weekly timesheet for home health aides, with a column for drive time between clients and a box to check your pay statement.
- Ontario overtime tracker apps, compared honestlyWhich iPhone hours tracker handles Ontario's 44-hour overtime rule? We checked four App Store listings, including our own, line by line.