Pay Stub Generator

Generate professional pay stubs online for free. Instant PDF download.

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How to Use This Tool

Enter Employer and Employee Details

Fill in the company name, employee name, pay period, and pay date.

Add Earnings and Deductions

Enter gross pay, taxes withheld, and any other deductions (health insurance, 401k, etc.). The tool calculates net pay automatically.

Download PDF Pay Stub

Click Generate Pay Stub to produce a professional PDF formatted like a standard payroll pay stub.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who needs a pay stub generator?

Freelancers and self-employed individuals needing proof of income for apartment rental applications. Small business owners paying employees or contractors. People whose employers don't provide detailed pay stubs.

Are self-generated pay stubs legal?

Self-generated pay stubs are legal to create but may not be accepted by all lenders or landlords as proof of income. They should accurately reflect actual earnings. Tax returns, bank statements, and 1099 forms are often more accepted for formal applications.

What information should a pay stub include?

Employee name, employer name, pay period, pay date, gross pay, itemised deductions (federal tax, state tax, FICA), net pay, and year-to-date (YTD) totals.

Is the pay stub valid for apartment applications?

Many landlords accept pay stubs as proof of income, but policies vary. For self-employment income, bank statements or tax returns may be requested alongside pay stubs.

About Pay Stub Generator

You are a freelance UX designer who just got a verbal yes on a Brooklyn apartment and the property manager needs 'three recent pay stubs' to process your application. You are a sole proprietor — your income comes in as client invoices, not W-2 paychecks — and your CPA has not filed your LLC-to-S-corp election yet so there is no formal payroll. Or you run a 4-person consultancy and need to generate pay stubs for a new contractor you just moved to W-2 before they start next Monday. This generator produces a printable pay stub PDF with employee name, employer name, pay period dates, gross pay, itemized deductions (federal income tax, Social Security 6.2 percent, Medicare 1.45 percent, state income tax, any pre-tax deductions like 401(k) and HSA), net pay, and year-to-date running totals. Calculations follow 2024 IRS withholding tables and FICA caps (Social Security wage base 168,600 USD). Useful for legitimate small-employer payroll, for documenting sole-proprietor owner draws in an S-corp structure, and for replacing lost originals from a past employer. It is not appropriate for fabricating income — misrepresentation on a lease or loan application is fraud.

When to use this tool

Small employer running first-time manual payroll

A 2-person startup running payroll on a spreadsheet before migrating to Gusto or ADP. Generate compliant pay stubs that meet state disclosure requirements (California Labor Code 226 requires 9 specific items, including pay period dates, gross and net wages, and itemized deductions).

S-corp owner documenting reasonable compensation

A solo S-corp owner paying themselves a 90K USD reasonable salary per IRS requirements. Generate monthly pay stubs to document the payroll split between W-2 wages and distributions, useful for audit defense and year-end reconciliation to Form 1120-S and W-2.

Replacing lost originals from a former employer

You are applying for a mortgage and need pay stubs from a previous role that closed down last year. If the former HR contact is unreachable, reconstruct stubs from your W-2 and bank deposit history and submit with a written explanation to the underwriter (who will usually accept this with a VOE letter).

Independent contractor moving to W-2 mid-year

A consultant formerly paid via 1099 just signed a full-time offer. Employer generates retroactive pay stubs for the onboarding paperwork and YTD tracking starts clean, with prior 1099 earnings handled on Schedule C separately at year-end.

Demonstrating income for child support or alimony calculation

A gig worker (Uber, Doordash, Instacart driver) needs to document monthly income for a court-ordered child support calculation. Compile weekly platform statements into a monthly 'pay stub' equivalent — courts generally accept this plus the underlying platform records.

How it works

1
Federal withholding via IRS Publication 15-T percentage method
We apply the percentage method from Publication 15-T using 2024 single-filer brackets to annualized gross pay, then divide back to the pay-period amount. Standard deduction (14,600 single, 29,200 MFJ 2024) is applied before bracket math. No W-4 adjustments are modeled — if your real W-4 has extra withholding or multiple-jobs adjustments, the actual withholding will differ.
2
FICA applies capped Social Security plus uncapped Medicare
Social Security tax is 6.2 percent of YTD gross wages up to the 168,600 USD 2024 wage base, then zero for the rest of the year. Medicare is 1.45 percent on all wages. Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9 percent is withheld on wages over 200,000 USD per year, per the 2013 rule under ACA. These rates are hardcoded to 2024 values.
3
State withholding uses each state's 2024 bracket or flat rate
The 32 states with bracketed income tax apply their 2024 brackets; flat-rate states (Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah) apply their single rate; nine states have no income tax on wages (AK, FL, NV, NH on wages, SD, TN, TX, WA, WY). Local taxes (NYC, Philadelphia, some Ohio and Michigan municipalities) are entered manually if applicable — not automatically computed.

Pro tips

State law dictates what must appear on a pay stub

California Labor Code 226 requires 9 specific items on every pay stub, including employer legal name and address, inclusive pay period dates, and all deductions itemized. New York labor law requires similar disclosure and allows employees to recover 250 USD per violation per pay period up to 5,000 USD. If you are generating pay stubs for an employee in a regulated state, verify against the current state requirements — a generic template may not pass a wage-and-hour audit. For employers, ADP, Gusto, and QuickBooks Payroll auto-handle these disclosures; a manual generator requires you to know the rules.

YTD running totals are not optional — they are legal requirements

Employers are required to show year-to-date gross, each YTD deduction, and YTD net on every pay stub in most states (all 26 states with pay stub laws and most federal contexts). The YTD figures are critical for the employee to track Social Security wage base ceiling, 401(k) contribution limit status, and W-2 reconciliation. If you generate pay stubs mid-year, ensure the YTD numbers reflect actual YTD payments — not just the current period extrapolated.

Do not use this to fabricate income — it is fraud

Submitting a fabricated pay stub to a landlord, lender, or court to misrepresent income is a crime under federal wire fraud statutes and most state fraud laws. It can result in mortgage or lease denial, criminal charges, and eviction for post-discovery. A legitimate use of a generator is producing accurate records for your own actual payroll (S-corp owner draws, small-employer payroll, replacement for lost originals) — not inventing income you do not have. Underwriters increasingly verify pay stubs against bank deposits and IRS wage transcripts, so fabrication is usually caught anyway.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to generate my own pay stubs?

Yes, with important caveats. Employers are legally required to provide pay stubs in 41 states and can absolutely use a generator or payroll software as the source. Self-employed individuals, S-corp owners, and sole proprietors can legitimately generate pay stubs documenting their own income or owner draws. What is illegal is fabricating income on a pay stub to mislead a third party (landlord, lender, court) about your actual earnings — that is fraud under federal wire fraud statutes (18 U.S.C. 1343) and state laws, punishable by fines and prison time. The tool is legitimate; misuse of the output is not.

What should appear on a legally compliant pay stub?

Federal law (Fair Labor Standards Act) does not mandate pay stubs at all, but 41 states require them. Most state requirements include: employee name, employer legal name and address, pay period dates, hours worked (for hourly employees), gross pay, each deduction itemized with a description, net pay, pay date, and year-to-date totals. California Labor Code 226 and New York Labor Law both enumerate 9 specific required items. For an employer, failing to provide a compliant stub can trigger a 250 USD per violation per pay period penalty in California, so check your specific state's labor code or the Department of Labor website before relying on a generic template.

How do I calculate withholding for a biweekly versus semimonthly schedule?

Biweekly means 26 paychecks per year (every two weeks); semimonthly means 24 paychecks (twice per month, typically 1st and 15th). For federal withholding, divide annual tax by the number of paychecks: a 60K USD salary with 8,400 annual federal tax withholds 323 per biweekly paycheck or 350 per semimonthly paycheck. FICA is always a percentage of gross per paycheck regardless of schedule. State follows the same approach. The key pitfall: February on semimonthly gets 2 paychecks, while biweekly occasionally has 3-paycheck months (2 per year), which affects monthly cash flow and 401(k) per-paycheck contribution math.

Why do my pay stub numbers not match my W-2?

They should match, but often differ due to: pre-tax deductions (401(k), HSA, health insurance premiums, FSA) that reduce W-2 Box 1 (federal wages) but not Box 3 (Social Security wages) or Box 5 (Medicare wages) — creating three different wage figures on one W-2. Imputed income (group-term life over 50K, domestic partner health benefits) that appears on W-2 but not on regular pay stubs. Pay period cutoffs that straddle year-end (a December 28 pay date might be included in the W-2 for year X even though earned partly in year Y). Reconcile line by line against your YTD pay stubs; small deltas are normal, material deltas warrant contacting payroll before tax filing.

Can I use a generated pay stub for a mortgage application?

Only if the pay stub reflects actual income. Mortgage lenders require pay stubs as part of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac documentation standards, and most also obtain a Verification of Employment (VOE) directly from your employer, pull IRS tax transcripts via 4506-C, and may review bank deposit history to confirm paychecks cleared. If your generated pay stub does not match the VOE, the IRS transcript, or the deposits, the loan will be denied and potentially flagged for fraud investigation. Self-employed borrowers typically need 2 years of tax returns (Form 1040 with Schedule C or K-1) rather than pay stubs; a sole proprietor pay stub is not the right documentation for a mortgage. This is not legal advice — consult a mortgage professional or real estate attorney for your specific situation.

Honest limitations

· Generates documents based on inputs you provide; accuracy depends on you entering real gross pay, deductions, and withholding values consistent with actual W-2 and IRS records.
· Does not handle complex payroll situations — multi-state employees, imputed income, group-term life over 50K, non-resident alien withholding, or Section 125 cafeteria plan nuances.
· Not a substitute for payroll software (Gusto, ADP, QuickBooks Payroll) for active employers; generated stubs do not file 941, 940, W-2, or state payroll returns.

Pay stub generation sits adjacent to most practical payroll and personal-finance tools. The paycheck-calculator shows the math that should appear on a correctly-computed pay stub; use it to verify the generated output matches expected withholding. The invoice-generator is the 1099-contractor equivalent for non-W-2 work. The retirement-calculator and compound-interest-calculator use salary figures pulled from a pay stub as inputs. For rental or mortgage applications that require additional documentation beyond stubs, the age-calculator verifies employment-period math when a lender asks for exact start dates.