Itemised pay statement

Use our statement at or before you pay wages or salary to a worker to set out the breakdown of the amount paid and any deductions.

Statutory provisions

The Employment Rights Act 1996 requires that you issue every worker with a written itemised pay statement, or payslip, at or before the time at which any payment of wages is made to them. The payslip can be provided either in a physical format or in an electronic format that the worker can print.

Minimum contents

The payslip must contain details of:

• the gross amount of wages/salary
• the amounts of any variable, and any fixed, deductions from that gross amount and the purposes for which they’re made, e.g. income tax and NI contributions
• the net amount of wages/salary payable
• where different parts of the net amount are paid in different ways, the amount and method of payment of each part-payment
• where the amount of wages/salary the worker receives varies depending on the number of hours they’ve worked, the total number of hours paid for on this basis - the hours can be shown either as a single aggregate of all such hours in the pay period, or they can be broken down into separate figures for different types of work or different rates of pay.

Specific fixed deductions

Specific fixed deductions, such as instalments to repay a loan, don’t need to be shown each time but can be shown as one total deduction, provided the worker has also been given a written standing statement of fixed deductions setting out the amount of the deduction, the intervals at which it’s made and the purpose for it. The standing statement can be amended by notice in writing and must be updated at least once every twelve months.

Pay statement precedent

Our Itemised Pay Statement ensures that you cover all the statutory requirements in terms of gross payments, any deductions and net pay, and we’ve broken this down into rows and columns to cover the typical payments and deductions that might be made. We’ve also included a tax year to date table. Finally, it includes general and personal information, such as the names of the worker and employer, the worker’s NI number and tax code, what tax week or month you’re currently at, how frequently the worker is paid, the payment date and the payment method, e.g. BACS.