Payslips

Employers are legally obliged to provide employees with an itemised pay statement. These are usually called payslips or wage slips.

Exemptions

Some categories are exempt from this:

  • Non employees, for example (contractors, freelancers or 'workers')
  • a member of the police service
  • a merchant seaman, master or crew member working in share fishing and paid solely by a share in the profits or gross earnings of a fishing vessel

 

Information a pay statement must contain

Every pay statement must contain the following information:

  • amount of your wages before any deductions (gross wages)
  • individual amount of any fixed deductions (such as trade union subscriptions) or the total amount of these deductions if you are given a 'standing statement of fixed deductions' as detailed below
  • individual amount of any variable deductions (for example, tax)
  • net amount of your wages (this is the total after deductions)
  • amount and method for any part-payment of wage (such as separate figures of a cash payment and the balance credited to a bank account)

Additional Information

Your employer might include additional information on your payslip which they are not required to provide, such as:

  • National Insurance number
  • tax codes
  • pay rate (either annual or hourly)
  • additional payments like overtime, tips or bonuses, which might be shown separately

Deductions

If an employer does not set out any fixed deductions in employees pay slips, they must provide a standing statement of fixed deductions every 12 months.

This must be in writing and include:

  • the amount and intervals at which the deduction is made
  • contain the purpose or description of the deduction

It must be given to employees before their first payslip with the fixed deductions

Last updated: 18 November 2021