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Understanding your pay earnings statement

Payroll Team

Fall 2024

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At the top of this sample earnings statement, you’ll see that this statement is for the pay period from April 22 through May 21. This is important for employees to understand anytime you receive a pay increase. For example, if you receive a pay increase effective on July 1, your paycheck will not represent that new salary in entirety because your old salary from June 22 through June 30 will be included as well as your new salary from July 1 through July 21.

The earnings section will reflect your current work status, including regular earnings, sabbatical earnings, family leave earnings, any additional pay like stipends, and overtime. Some employees who have more than one position may have multiple earnings lines.

Some staff may have an hours worked section if you are an hourly employee or a nonexempt employee that has worked overtime or reported unpaid hours in that pay period. Many employees will note “not applicable” in this section.

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The employee paid deductions section indicates a variety of things. The order of items on each pay earning statement is in alphabetical order and will be unique to your eligible and elected benefits. In this example, you will first see the dental premium for a spouse, followed by the federal filing status that you selected on your W4. The next line will indicate how much you are contributing to your medical premiums based on your selection. For employees only, that represents 0.65% of your salary. If you are covering other family members, then you will have separate lines for their premiums as shown in this example.

Additionally included in this section is the amount you pay for medicare, social security, out of state income tax, workers compensation, WA Paid Family and Medical, and WA Cares Fund. Medicare and social security are required federally, and workers compensation, WA Paid Family and WA Cares Fund are required by the state. Lastly, in this sample is the TIAA 403(b) contribution. In this example, the employee has a deduction for 2% in order to be eligible for the College’s 10% match. This employee also has a pre-tax fixed amount. If you have an after-tax deduction, it will say TIAA ROTH 2% for match. If you have an after-tax additional contribution, it will say TIAA Roth % deduction. These amounts are based on what you have communicated to TIAA. If you ever want to make a change, you can do so by logging into your TIAA account at tiaa.org/Whitman.

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Now let’s turn our attention to the Whitman College-Paid Benefits. This represents what the College pays towards your benefits and taxes on your behalf. In this sample, the first line represents how much the college pays for the employee’s dental insurance, which is the full premium. The College also pays for your Group Term Life Insurance and Long Term Disability Insurance. The college pays their portion of your medicare, social security, Washington paid family and medical, and worker’s comp. Any additional benefits you receive from the college, such as moving benefits or taxable tuition remission, will be listed here too. Lastly, if you contribute 2% of your salary to our 403(b) plan, you will see the College’s 10% match on this side.

For faculty who are on sabbatical, you will see a different match eligibility code based on your base salary – it will be TIAA 10% contribution base salary to ensure that you continue getting 10% of your base salary while you are receiving the sabbatical pay reduction. Then when your sabbatical ends, you will return to TIAA 10%.

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In the Totals section, you will see your gross pay, which is your pay prior to deductions. It should match the total earnings itemized above.

On the next line, Whitman is paying the entire premium for your life insurance policy, however the amount of life insurance over $50,000 is taxable to the employee per IRS guidelines.

Federal Income Tax Wages indicates the income amount used to calculate your income tax due for the pay period. Taxable pay is increased by taxable college-paid benefits and reduced by tax exempt employee-paid deductions. For example, Life Insurance over $50K is not included in gross wages, but increases your taxable pay. Relocation expenses are another example of a benefit that increase your taxable pay. Employee-paid deductions like medical contributions for self or dependents, flexible spending accounts, and pre-tax contribution to your 403(b) account will reduce your taxable pay.

Net to bank is your pay after deductions and taxes have been accounted for that is transmitted to your bank account.

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Questions?

payroll@whitman.edu

Memorial Building, Room 110

hr@whitman.edu

Memorial Building, Room 104

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