Pay Stub Abbreviations: Complete A-Z List of Paycheck Codes and Meanings

By ePaystubs Editorial Team  |  Updated June 22, 2026  |  Verified against IRS Topic 751

A pay stub can hold dozens of cryptic codes crammed into a single page. The good news is that they follow a predictable structure. Once you know the five sections a stub is built from, every abbreviation falls into place. This guide decodes them section by section, in the same order they appear on your stub, and flags the handful of codes that confusingly mean two different things.

• The five sections
• Header codes
• Earnings codes
• Tax codes
• Codes with two meanings
• Deduction codes
• Summary totals
• Unrecognized codes
• A-Z index

Why Your Paycheck Is Smaller Than Your Salary (and Full of Codes)

Almost everyone remembers the surprise of their first paycheck: the take-home amount was far smaller than the salary they were promised. The gap is the stack of taxes and deductions sitting between your gross pay and your net pay, each one labeled with a short code.

For a typical worker, roughly 7.65% of gross goes to FICA (Social Security and Medicare), another 10% to 22% goes to federal income tax depending on income and filing status, 0% to 13% goes to state income tax, and another 5% to 15% goes to pre-tax benefits like health insurance and retirement. Added together, deductions commonly total 25% to 40% of gross pay before the money ever reaches you. The codes exist to fit all of that detail onto one page, and this guide explains each one.

How a Pay Stub Is Organized (The Five Sections)

Every pay stub, regardless of employer or payroll platform, is built from the same five sections. Learn the buckets and you can place any code instantly.

The stub reads top to bottom: it identifies you, lists what you earned, subtracts taxes, subtracts deductions, and shows what is left. The sections below follow that same order.

Header and Identifier Codes

The top of your stub identifies the people and the period involved. These codes do not affect your pay math, but they matter for recordkeeping and verifying the stub is yours.

Earnings Codes (What You Earned)

The earnings section lists every form of pay you received this period. Together these lines add up to your gross pay, the figure at the top of the deduction math. This is the section with the widest range of codes, because pay comes in many forms.

Tax Codes (What Is Withheld by Law)

The tax section shows the mandatory withholdings every employee is subject to. The amounts vary by income, filing status, and location, but the codes are consistent.

Nine states have no state income tax, so you will not see a SIT line if you work in Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, or Wyoming.

The MED Collision and Other Codes That Mean Two Things

A few abbreviations are ambiguous, and they cause more confusion than any others. The single most important one to get right is MED.

Several other codes carry more than one possible meaning depending on the employer and payroll system:

Deduction Codes (Benefits and Withholdings)

The deduction section covers benefit contributions and other amounts withheld from your pay. This is the most nuanced group of codes, because each one is treated differently for tax purposes. Here is a quick reference to what the common ones stand for.

If your employer uses ADP, many of these labels look different and more cryptic than the standard set. For the ADP-specific versions, see ADP pay stub abbreviations.

Summary and Total Codes

The bottom of your stub summarizes the math into a few key totals.

Every YTD column resets to zero on January 1 and tracks the cumulative total for the year. For how to read and verify your year-to-date figures, see what YTD means on a pay stub.

What to Do When You See a Code You Don't Recognize

No glossary covers every code, because employers can create custom ones. When you hit an abbreviation you cannot place, work through these steps:

First, check the legend or key printed on the stub itself, which many payroll systems include. Next, look at your onboarding paperwork and benefits enrollment confirmations, where custom deduction codes are usually defined. If it is still unclear, ask HR or payroll directly, and do it in writing so you have a record.

If you need a clean record with standard, recognizable codes, you can generate a pay stub that lays out earnings, taxes, and deductions clearly.

Pay Stub Abbreviations: Full A-Z Index

Looking for one specific code? This alphabetical index lists every abbreviation covered above, with its meaning and the section of your stub where it appears. Jump to a letter or scan the full list.

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