Pay stub decoder
OASDI, FITW, SDI, SEC125: paste the confusing lines from your pay stub and get each one explained, with anything unusual flagged.
AI answers can be wrong. The calculator numbers above don’t depend on AI.
Common pay stub codes
| Code on the stub | What it is |
|---|---|
| FIT / FITW / FED WH | Federal income tax withheld, based on your W-4 and IRS Publication 15-T. |
| OASDI / SS / FICA-SS | Social Security tax, 6.2% of FICA wages up to the annual wage base. |
| MED / MEDI / FICA-MED | Medicare tax, 1.45% of all FICA wages (plus 0.9% over $200,000). |
| SIT / SWT / ST WH | State income tax withheld. |
| LIT / CITY / LOCAL / EIT | City, county or school-district income tax (e.g. NYC, Philadelphia, Ohio cities, Pennsylvania EIT). |
| SDI / VPDI / TDI | State disability insurance (California, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Hawaii). |
| FLI / PFL / PFML / FAMLI | Paid family and medical leave contributions (NY, NJ, MA, WA, CO, CT, OR and others). |
| 401K / 401K PRE / DEF COMP | Traditional 401(k) deferral, pre-tax for income tax, still subject to FICA. |
| ROTH / 401K RTH | Roth 401(k) deferral, taken after tax. |
| SEC125 / MED PRE / DEN / VIS | Health, dental or vision premium through a cafeteria plan, pre-tax for income tax and FICA. |
| HSA / FSA / DCAP | Health savings, flexible spending or dependent-care account contributions, usually pre-tax. |
| GTL / IMP INC | Group term life over $50,000 or other imputed income: not cash, but taxable, so it raises tax lines. |
Payroll providers use their own abbreviations, so your stub may differ. To check whether the amounts are right, enter your salary and state in the paycheck calculator and compare line by line.
Questions people ask
What does OASDI mean on my pay stub?
OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, the official name for Social Security. It should be 6.2% of your FICA wages each period until you pass the annual wage base ($184,500 in 2026).
Why is my taxable wage lower than my gross pay?
Pre-tax deductions such as a traditional 401(k), health premiums and HSA contributions are subtracted before income tax. Federal taxable wages exclude 401(k) and cafeteria-plan items; FICA wages exclude only cafeteria-plan items, so the FICA figure is usually higher.
Is it safe to paste my pay stub here?
Remove your name, address, employee ID and any Social Security or bank numbers first; the explanation only needs the line items and amounts. The text is sent to an AI model through Vercel’s AI Gateway to generate the explanation, and PaycheckWise does not store it.