Pay slip - what should it contain and how to read it?

A pay slip, or a salary slip, contains important information about the components of a monthly pay, and includes, among other things, the amount of social security and health insurance contributions deducted. How to read the pay slip correctly and is an employer obliged to issue it?

A pay slip is a summary of the most important information concerning the components of an employee’s salary, such as any contributions deducted from the pay and any tax deductions or preferences applied. The pay slip informs an employee what the difference between the gross and net monthly salary is.

Pay slip – is an employer obliged to issue it?

A lot of companies prepare monthly pay slips for their employees informing them about how their salaries are calculated. Under the Labour Code, employers are not obliged to do so, but it is possible to provide for such an option in the work regulations or remuneration regulations. Providing employees with pay slips is therefore entirely voluntary, and the slips can be produced both in electronic form, so-called e-slips, and in paper.

Pay slip – what should it contain and how to read it? 

The pay slip, whatever form it takes, contains a number of items indicating the way in which an employee’s net salary is calculated. The number of items is not influenced by the way in which the pay slip is distributed (e-slip or paper slip), but by the reliefs applied, tax preferences, calculation method, working time, etc.

However, each pay slip contains key items, which are:

• Company data (name, NIP, REGON),
• Employee data (also information about an employee provided by an employer to ZUS),
• Date of completion and the period for which the payment was made,
• Gross charges – components of remuneration on which ZUS contributions are calculated or only health contribution or advance payment for income tax,
• Allowances – for example, sick pay, i.e. the gross amount of accrued sick pay,
• Employee deductions – advance income tax, contributions and insurance deducted from an employee’s salary,
• Employer contributions – the number of contributions calculated which are expense to an employer,
• Absences – the absences accounted for on the payroll of an employee (paid and unpaid holiday leave).

The most important information contained in the pay slip is of course the net amount of salary resulting from the calculation. The employee can check on this basis whether the amount on the pay slip corresponds with the amount of remuneration transferred to the bank account.

Electronic pay slips

There is no doubt that the future belongs to electronic pay slips. E-slips, made available online, are becoming more and more popular, and most employees prefer this form of receiving information about their monthly salary calculation.

Electronic pay slips contain exactly the same information as their traditional paper counterparts, with the only difference that their distribution is much simpler and at the same time ecological. In addition, the pay slip itself is better protected against access by third parties, as security features such as data encryption and security certificates are the standard.

Asistar – employee portal with e-pay slips – learn more

E-pay slips – key benefits

• security – minimised risk of sensitive data becoming public (strong encryption, electronic signature option, elimination of intermediaries)
• speed – distribution is fast, cheap and user-friendly,
• archiving – electronic recording, access to all data in a few moments,
• costs – reduction of costs by replacing traditional printouts with electronic documents,
• access – employees gain fast access to e-slips (also to the archived ones) via the HR and payroll platform,
• comfort – the option of e-slips is convenient for employees and employers; it is a modern solution preferred by both parties.