You just started working your dream job, you have received your first paystub, but you don’t understand why the gross pay and the net pay don’t tally; you are seeing strange alphabets that have no meaning come together. While you are still struggling with the numbers, you don’t even understand what the tiny alphabet means.
It is called a paystub abbreviation. These abbreviations are what make the information on your pay stub simple and easy to read. So, once you know the abbreviation, you can just be bothered about the calculations and avoid paystub common mistakes like those found at https://topbusinessadv.com/what-are-the-pay-stub-check-common-mistakes/
This article will decode the most common paystub abbreviation so you can easily interpret your next pay stub.
Table of Contents
Header
The header of your paystub is usually at the top of the paystub check. It contains basic information like your name, address, pay period, check date, and other identifying information. The most common abbreviation on the header includes
- Check No.- Check number
- SSN- Social Security number
- EIN- Employee identification number
Income or Earnings
This is the part you are usually concerned with because it shows the total amount you will receive before any deductions. Some common income abbreviation includes
- Add pay- Additional pay
- BRVMT- Bereavement pay
- Cmppyot- Compensatory time pay
- CNT pay- Contract pay- salary
- Gross- Earnings before taxes and deduction
- Hil- Holiday pay
- FMLA- Family and Medical Leave Act
- Jury- Jury duty pay
- Misc- Miscellaneous pay
- Move Rem- Move reimbursement
- Net- Earnings after taxes and deductions
- OT @ 1.5- Overtime pay (at 1.5 times your regular pay rate)
- PTO- Personal time off or paid time off
- On Call- On-call pay
- Reg Pay- Regular Pay- hourly
- Sick- Sick pay
- SignOn- Sign-on bonus pay
- Severanc- Severance pay
- TuiReimb- Tuition reimbursement
- Vac- Vacation pay
- YTD- Year-to-date-earnings.
Deductions
These deductions are usually for tax purposes and other employee benefits. You should check these deductions well because it is always among the paystub common mistakes made by employers.
These are tax deduction abbreviations
- FICA-Med- Federal Insurance Contributions Act and Medicare.
- FICA-SS- Federal Insurance Contribution Act -Social Security
- Fed/FWT/FIT/FITW- Federal tax withholding
- St Tax/SWT/SIT/SITW- State tax withholding
- Local Tax- Local or city tax withholdings
Common Before-Tax Deduction abbreviation
These are deductions before the government gets its own deductions.
- 410K/Ret- Retirement withholdings
- DCR- Dependent care reimbursement
- Den- Dental premium
- INS/ MED- Insurance or medical insurance deduction
- FSA- Flexible spending account
- HCR- Health care reimbursement
- HSA- Health saving account
- LTD- Long-term disability withholding
- VIS/Vision- Vision premium
Common After-tax Deduction abbreviation
These are usually deductions for penalties and legal obligations.
- Bankruptcy- Bankruptcy
- Garn- Garnishment flat rate
- CHD SU- Child support
- Garn%- Garnishment percentage
- StdnLoan- Student loan
- TX Levy- Tax levy
- IRS Levy- Internal Revenue Service Levy
If you are wondering why your Gross income went from $10,000 to $7000, then these abbreviations will make it super easy. It’ll make you sync the reason it was deducted and the calculations. It helps you avoid confusion, understand tax filing better and catch errors. You can also generate your employee pay stub for automation and to avoid paystub common mistakes.