Payslip / Pay Stub
A payslip (also called a pay stub, wage slip, or salary statement) is the document that employers provide to employees upon payment of salary, detailing gross pay, deductions, taxes, and net pay. It is legally required in most jurisdictions — monthly in France and Germany, weekly or biweekly in the US and UK — and serves as essential proof of income in KYC and creditworthiness verification procedures.
Payslips are governed by employment legislation in every major jurisdiction, though required content and delivery frequency vary:
- **United States**: Pay stubs are required by most states (though not federally mandated). They typically show gross wages, federal and state tax withholdings, Social Security and Medicare (FICA) deductions, and net pay. Frequency is usually weekly or biweekly. - **United Kingdom**: The Employment Rights Act 1996 requires employers to provide itemized pay statements showing gross pay, variable deductions, fixed deductions, net pay, and (since 2019) hours worked for hourly employees. Frequency is typically weekly or monthly. - **France**: The Labour Code mandates monthly payslips with detailed breakdowns of employer and employee social contributions, net taxable amount, and (since 2019) income tax withholding. Digital payslips are permitted with employee consent. - **Germany**: The Gewerbeordnung requires monthly Lohnabrechnung/Gehaltsabrechnung showing gross salary, social insurance contributions (health, pension, unemployment, long-term care), income tax, solidarity surcharge, and net pay. - **Australia**: Fair Work Act 2009 requires pay slips within one business day of payment, showing gross and net amounts, superannuation contributions, and applicable loadings or penalties.
In identity and income verification procedures, payslips are systematically requested by banks (loan applications), landlords (rental applications), credit agencies, and government bodies worldwide. Verifying their authenticity is critical as payslips are among the most commonly forged documents, with modifications typically targeting net salary, employer name, or employment dates.
Document verification solutions like CheckFile.ai enable automatic analysis of payslips using artificial intelligence. They verify mathematical consistency between gross pay, deductions, and net amounts (fraudsters often make calculation errors), check for mandatory information per jurisdiction, detect digital manipulation, and can cross-reference data with employer registries to validate the issuing company.
Regulations
Real-world examples
- 1A US bank requires the last two pay stubs from a mortgage applicant to assess repayment capacity, cross-referencing the stated income against W-2 forms and tax returns.
- 2A UK landlord uses an automated verification solution to analyze tenant applicants' payslips, detecting an inconsistency between the displayed net salary and the declared tax deductions on a forged document.
- 3An Australian lender verifies a borrower's most recent payslip against their employer's ABN (Australian Business Number) to confirm employment status and superannuation contributions before approving a personal loan.