Pay stubs are packed with abbreviations that look like alphabet soup: FICA, OASDI, GTL, FIT, YTD. Each one stands for a specific earning, tax, or deduction — and once you know the vocabulary, your stub becomes easy to verify. Here's a glossary of the codes you're most likely to see.
Codes aren't standardized. Different payroll providers abbreviate the same thing in different ways, so treat this as a guide and check with your employer if a line is unclear.
Earnings codes
These appear in the earnings section and add up to your gross pay.
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| REG | Regular hours worked |
| OT | Overtime pay (usually 1.5× your rate) |
| HOL | Holiday pay |
| VAC / PTO | Vacation or paid time off |
| BONUS | A one-time bonus payment |
| COMM | Commission earnings |
Tax withholding codes
These are the mandatory taxes pulled from your gross pay.
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| FICA | Federal Insurance Contributions Act — Social Security + Medicare |
| OASDI | Old-Age, Survivors & Disability Insurance (the Social Security portion, 6.2%) |
| MED / FED MED/EE | Medicare (1.45%) |
| FIT / FWT / FED | Federal income tax |
| SIT / SWT / ST | State income tax |
| SDI | State disability insurance (in some states) |
The "EE" you sometimes see (as in FED MED/EE) means employee — the portion you pay. An "ER" suffix means employer.
Deduction and benefit codes
These come out after taxes or, for pre-tax benefits, before them.
- 401(k) — your retirement contribution. A separate employer match line (sometimes labeled with codes like MTCH or ER 401K) shows what your company adds — that's free money, not a deduction from your take-home.
- HSA / FSA — health savings or flexible spending account contributions (usually pre-tax).
- MED / DEN / VIS — medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums.
- GTL — Group Term Life. If your employer-paid life insurance exceeds $50,000 in coverage, the IRS treats the excess as imputed income, so it's added to your taxable wages even though no cash changes hands.
- GARN / LEVY — wage garnishments or tax levies ordered by a court or agency.
The one code on every line: YTD
YTD stands for year-to-date — the running total of that earning, tax, or deduction since January 1. The YTD columns are how you confirm your withholdings are on track and how lenders verify steady income, so they matter just as much as the current-period numbers.
A quick sanity check
Once you can read the codes, verifying your stub takes seconds:
- Add up the earnings codes — they should equal your gross pay.
- Add up the tax and deduction codes.
- Gross pay minus those deductions should equal your net pay.
If the math doesn't work, flag it with payroll.
Create a clearly labeled pay stub
If you're generating stubs for yourself, employees, or contractors, OakPaystubs itemizes every earning, tax, and deduction with clear labels and automatic YTD totals — so there's no guesswork about what each line means.
Need a pay stub right now?
Create an accurate, professional pay stub in minutes — taxes calculated automatically for your state.
Create a Pay Stub