Pay Stub Requirements by State (Plus Chart & Infographic!)

Distributing pay stubs is often an important part of the payroll process. But, do employers have to provide pay stubs? That answer depends on where your business is located. To stay compliant, you need to know the pay stub requirements by state.

All about pay stubs

Not sure what is a pay stub? No worries. A pay stub is like a summary sheet that lists details about an employee’s pay. It includes an employee’s gross income per pay period, taxes and deductions, employer contributions, and net pay. Employers are responsible for knowing how to generate pay stubs for employees.

visual explaining the three things pay stubs outline (gross wages, taxes deductions and employer contributions, and net pay)

If you use payroll software, the system generates a pay stub each time you run payroll. That way, you can distribute them to employees and keep digital or physical copies for your records.

You can think of a pay stub as a receipt for the money you pay employees. Employees can reference their pay stubs if they have any questions about their gross pay, deductions and contributions, or net pay.

Do employers have to provide a pay stub?

You might be wondering, Are pay stubs required? The short answer is: maybe.

Not all employers are required to provide a pay stub. To find out your responsibilities, you need to look at federal and state laws.

Are employers required to provide pay stubs? Federal law

There is no federal law that requires that employers provide pay stubs to employees. However, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employers keep payroll records. Under the FLSA, employers need to retain each employee’s hours worked and wages received.

Bottom line: you should generate pay stubs for your records under federal law. But, federal law does not require that you give them to your workers.

Are employers required to give pay stubs? State law

The answer to Are pay stubs required by law? is a little more complicated at the state level. Some states require employers to provide pay stubs and some don’t. If you must distribute them, familiarize yourself with pay stub requirements by state.

Here’s a breakdown of pay stub requirements by state. Some states:

  • Require that employers give employees access to pay stubs
  • Require that employers give employees printed pay stubs
  • Allow employers to give digital pay stubs
  • Don’t require employers to give employees pay stubs

Bottom line: some states have pay stub laws that require you to give employees pay stubs. Some states also require that you give employees physical copies of them.

Pay stub requirements by state

Most states that require employers to give employees pay stubs have rules saying that the documents must have standard pay stub information.

Generally, this means they include the beginning and end dates of the pay frequency; gross wages; taxes, deductions, and employer contributions; and net pay. The pay stub should also break down the number of regular and overtime hours worked.

Here are the pay stub legal requirements by state, broken down into categories.

States without pay stub laws: 

  1. Alabama
  2. Arkansas
  3. Florida
  4. Georgia
  5. Louisiana
  6. Mississippi
  7. Ohio
  8. South Dakota
  9. Tennessee

States that require employers to give employees access to pay stubs:

  1. Alaska
  2. Arizona
  3. Idaho
  4. Illinois
  5. Indiana
  6. Kansas
  7. Kentucky
  8. Maryland
  9. Michigan
  10. Missouri
  11. Montana
  12. Nebraska
  13. Nevada
  14. New Hampshire
  15. New Jersey
  16. New York
  17. North Dakota
  18. Oklahoma
  19. Pennsylvania
  20. Rhode Island
  21. South Carolina
  22. Utah
  23. Virginia
  24. West Virginia
  25. Wisconsin
  26. Wyoming

States that require employers to provide written or printed pay stubs:

  1. California
  2. Colorado
  3. Connecticut
  4. Iowa
  5. Maine
  6. Massachusetts
  7. New Mexico
  8. North Carolina
  9. Texas
  10. Vermont
  11. Washington

States that let employees opt-out of electronic pay stubs:

  1. Delaware
  2. Minnesota
  3. Oregon

State that requires employees to opt into electronic pay stubs:

  1. Hawaii
StatePay Stub Requirements by State
AlabamaNo requirements
AlaskaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
ArizonaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
ArkansasNo requirements
CaliforniaEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
ColoradoEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
ConnecticutEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
DelawareEmployers can give employees electronic pay stubs, but employees can opt-out and ask for paper stubs
FloridaNo requirements
GeorgiaNo requirements
HawaiiEmployers can only give employees electronic pay stubs if they opt into it
IdahoEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
IllinoisEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
IndianaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
IowaEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
KansasEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
KentuckyEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
LouisianaNo requirements
MaineEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
MarylandEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
MassachusettsEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
MichiganEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
MinnesotaEmployers can give employees electronic pay stubs, but employees can opt-out and ask for paper stubs
MississippiNo requirements
MissouriEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
MontanaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
NebraskaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
NevadaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
New HampshireEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
New JerseyEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
New MexicoEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
New YorkEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
North CarolinaEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
North DakotaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
OhioNo requirements
OklahomaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
OregonEmployers can give employees electronic pay stubs, but employees can opt-out and ask for paper stubs
PennsylvaniaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
Rhode IslandEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
South CarolinaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
South DakotaNo requirements
TennesseeNo requirements
TexasEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
UtahEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
VermontEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
VirginiaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
WashingtonEmployers must give employees written or printed pay stubs
West VirginiaEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
WisconsinEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format
WyomingEmployers must give employees access to pay stubs, in any format

Do employers have to provide a pay stub? Infographic

pay stub requirements by state infographic
Want more information about pay stubs? Download our FREE guide, Understand Your Pay Stub Responsibilities.

Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? Use Patriot’s online payroll to pay your employees and manage pay stubs! Give employees access to their own online portal so they can view digital pay stubs or print and distribute them, depending on your state’s rules. Start your free trial now!

This is not intended as legal advice; for more information, please click here.

Stay up to date on the latest payroll tips and training

You may also be interested in:

Most popular blog categories