Pay Stub Abbreviations: What Every Code Means

Payroll systems have about eight characters of space per line, so everything gets abbreviated. The codes are not standardised — ADP, Gusto, Paychex, Workday and Paylocity all label the same deduction differently — which is why your stub can look nothing like a colleague's.

This is every code you are likely to see, grouped by where it appears.

Federal taxes

Code	Means	2026 rate
FED, FIT, FITW, FED W/H	Federal income tax withheld	Per your W-4
OASDI, FED OASDI/EE, FICA-SS	Social Security	6.2% up to $184,500
MED, FED MED/EE, FICA-MED	Medicare	1.45%, no cap
ADDL MED	Additional Medicare surtax	0.9% above $200,000

OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance — the formal name for Social Security. The /EE suffix means "employee", your half. Your employer pays a matching 6.2% you never see on the stub.

Because the wage base is $184,500 in 2026, the most Social Security you can pay in a year is $11,439. If your OASDI year-to-date figure passes that, you are being over-withheld and should raise it with payroll immediately.

Medicare has no cap, so it applies to every dollar. Above $200,000 an extra 0.9% is withheld regardless of filing status.

Employer-side codes

These appear on some stubs for transparency. They are not deducted from your pay.

Code	Means
ER SS, ER OASDI	Employer's matching 6.2% Social Security
ER MED, ERMED	Employer's matching 1.45% Medicare
FUTA	Federal unemployment tax — employer only
ER SUTA, SUI ER	State unemployment tax — employer paid in most states
ER 401K, 401K MATCH	Employer's retirement match
WC, WORK COMP	Workers' compensation premium

If a code contains ER, it is your employer's cost. If it contains EE, it is yours.

State and local

Code	Means
SIT, ST TX, or a state abbreviation	State income tax
SDI, CASDI	State disability insurance
SUI EE	State unemployment, employee share (a few states only)
PFL, FLI, MLI	Paid family or medical leave premium
WA CARES	Washington long-term care premium
LOCAL, CITY TX	City or county income tax

State labels vary enormously. Ohio might show OH ST TX, California CA SIT, New York NY SWT.

Two that catch people out: WA FLI/EE and WA MLI/EE on a Washington stub are the Paid Leave premium, and Washington has no income tax at all — see the Washington calculator. And Maryland stubs carry a separate county tax line, which is why two Maryland colleagues on identical salaries take home different amounts — the Maryland calculator lets you pick your county.

Pre-tax deductions

These come out before income tax is calculated.

Code	Means
401K, 401K-PRE, TSP	Traditional retirement contribution
S125, SEC125, CAF, CAFE	Section 125 cafeteria plan
MED INS, HEALTH, INS	Health insurance premium
DEN, VIS	Dental and vision
HSA	Health Savings Account
FSA, FSA-DEP	Flexible Spending Account
DCA	Dependent care account
TRN, PKG	Commuter and parking benefits

Not all pre-tax deductions behave the same way. A 401K line reduces your income tax but is still subject to Social Security and Medicare. S125 and HSA lines reduce all three. That is why the Social Security wages box on your W-2 is often higher than the federal taxable wages box.

The pre-tax vs post-tax guide explains which saves more.

Post-tax deductions

Code	Means
ROTH, 401K-ROTH	Roth retirement contribution
GTL	Group term life above $50,000
STD, LTD	Short and long-term disability premiums
UD, UNION	Union dues
GARN, CHSUP, LEVY	Garnishment, child support, tax levy
ADV, LOAN	Advance or loan repayment

The codes that confuse people most

IMP INC or GTL — imputed income. This adds to your taxable wages without adding to your pay. The usual cause is employer-paid life insurance above $50,000 of coverage; the IRS treats the value of the excess as taxable compensation. Domestic partner health cover and personal use of a company car work the same way. It looks like an error. It is not.

YTD — year to date. The running total since 1 January. This is the column to check once a year: multiply your current gross by pay periods elapsed and compare. A mismatch means something changed that you may not have noticed.

RETRO. A correction for a previous period, usually a backdated raise. It is a supplemental wage, so it may be withheld at the flat 22% rate rather than your normal rate — see bonus tax withholding.

HOL, PTO, VAC, SICK. Paid leave categories. These count toward your pay but not toward the 40 hours that trigger overtime, which is a common source of underpaid overtime claims. See overtime rules.

LOA. Leave of absence, paid or unpaid depending on the code that follows.

When a code does not match

Payroll providers invent their own labels, so if a code here does not appear on your stub, or your stub has one not listed, ask payroll for their code key. Most large employers publish one, and they are required to be able to explain every line.

If a deduction appears that you never elected, raise it in writing rather than verbally. Payroll corrections are far easier to make in the same tax year.

Checking the numbers, not just the labels

Knowing what OASDI stands for does not tell you whether the amount is right. Run your gross through the calculator for your state and compare each line against your stub. The most common genuine errors are the wrong state coded for a remote worker, a stale W-4, and Social Security continuing past the wage base.