Work
Pay, in plain words
A paycheck is a short list. This page walks through that list, extra hours, and a way to set rent beside take-home pay.
Photo: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Gross pay is the starting amount. Taxes and other deductions come off. Net pay is what is left. The sections below use ordinary words for each of those lines.
This page is not financial advice or legal advice. Pay rules depend on the job, the contract, and the place you work.
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics
$37.81 an hour
Average hourly earnings of all employees at private businesses in the United States, seasonally adjusted, for September 2026. BLS marked this month preliminary. Series CES0500000003. It describes many jobs together, before tax. Your own wage can be higher or lower.
Source: BLS series CES0500000003. Read from the public BLS API (version 1, no key).
A workshop
Hourly work shows up as hours and a rate. Those two lines are the start of a pay stub.
Photo: The open draft, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A kitchen shift
A shift has a start, an end, and sometimes a break. Extra hours may be overtime.
Photo: Fredericknoronha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
An office
A salary is a year of pay, split into the weeks or months on the stub.
Photo: VeronicaTherese, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A bus route
A set week still becomes the same kind of stub: gross, deductions, net.
Photo: Manny Pardo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The stub
Reading a pay stub
The top of a stub names the employer and the pay period. Under that, hourly work lists hours and a rate. Salaried work lists the pay for the period. Gross pay is that amount before deductions.
Each deduction has a name: income tax, Social Security, Medicare, health insurance, retirement, union dues, or a garnishment. Net pay, sometimes called take-home pay, is gross minus those lines. A year-to-date column adds each line from the start of the year.
The table uses a round $1,000 so the arithmetic is easy to check: 1,000 − 80 − 62 − 14.50 − 50 = 793.50. The Social Security and Medicare lines in the example are the employee shares many stubs print for wages. A real stub follows the forms you filed and the law where you work. The IRS describes employment taxes in Topic 751.
| Line | Example | What the line is |
|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $1,000.00 | Hours times rate, or the salary for this period, before anything comes off. |
| Federal income tax | $80.00 | An example amount. A real stub uses the tax form you filed. |
| Social Security | $62.00 | In this example, 6.2 percent of $1,000. Many stubs print that employee share. |
| Medicare | $14.50 | In this example, 1.45 percent of $1,000. |
| Health insurance | $50.00 | A benefit deduction. The name and the amount are the plan’s, not a standard rate. |
| Net pay | $793.50 | What is left. This is the amount that should match the deposit or the check. |
If a line is unclear, payroll can name it. This page cannot see your stub.
The Hours calculator counts hours on a shift, minus an unpaid break. The Salary calculator turns an hourly wage into a week, a month, and a year, before tax.
Extra hours
Overtime
Overtime pay is extra money for extra hours. A common rate is time and a half: the overtime hour is paid at 1.5 times the usual hourly rate. Under a federal rule for many jobs, that starts after 40 hours in a workweek. Many jobs sit outside that rule, including some salaried work, and a state or a contract can set a different line.
The U.S. Department of Labor describes the federal overtime rule at dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime. Read that page for the rule itself. This page is a plain summary.
The Overtime calculator multiplies the hours and the rate you type. In the same example, five overtime hours at $20 and a 1.5 multiplier come to $150 before tax: 5 × 20 × 1.5. The calculator does that sum. It does not know the rule for a particular job.
The month
Rent and pay
Set one month of rent beside one month of take-home pay, the net line. In this example, take-home pay is $2,400 and rent is $1,100. Rent uses $1,100 of the $2,400, and $1,300 is left for food, transport, and the rest.
Example amounts, made up
- Take-home pay
- $2,400
- Rent
- $1,100
- Left in this example
- $1,300
These two amounts are made up so the subtraction is easy to see. They are not a budget and not a suggestion. Households differ, and a single share of income does not fit all of them.
The Salary calculator can turn an hourly wage into a monthly amount before tax. Take-home pay is smaller than that, because deductions come off first. Compare rent with the net line.
On this site
Calculators
These tools run in the browser. They multiply the numbers you type. They do not file taxes or read a contract.
Hiring now
Openings on a public job board
A few of the newest listings from the Arbeitnow board, which lists many jobs in Europe and remote work. Check the employer and the closing date yourself.
PMI & Founders Associate (m/w/d)
KLEEGO GmbH · Munich
Regional Sales Director
Catonetworks · München, Bavaria
Commercial Account Executive
Catonetworks · Berlin, Berlin
Data selection and quality evaluation for biological foundation models
Inceptive · Berlin, CA or Zurich, Switzerland
Source: Arbeitnow job board.