How to Read Your Federal Pay Stub: Every Line Explained

Last Updated: April 12, 2026 Reading Time: 10 min

Your biweekly Earnings and Leave Statement (ELS) is the most detailed financial document you get as a federal employee. Most people glance at the net pay number and move on. That works fine until something looks wrong or someone asks why your check is smaller than you expected.

Every line has a reason. This guide covers them all.

Key Takeaways

• Your ELS is divided into four main sections: earnings, deductions, taxes, and leave balances.
• Pre-tax deductions (Traditional TSP and FEHB premiums) lower your taxable wages, which is why that number is smaller than your gross pay.
• FERS employees pay 0.8%, 3.1%, or 4.4% of salary toward retirement depending on hire date.
• The TSP agency match of up to 5% is free money. You must contribute at least 5% every pay period to capture it all.
• Your leave balances update every pay period. Watch the annual leave balance to avoid use-or-lose forfeiture.

Where to Find Your Federal Pay Stub

Federal employees access their pay stubs through one of two main systems:

myPay (DFAS): Used by most civilian employees paid through the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Log in at mypay.dfas.mil. You can view current and past pay stubs, update withholding, and download W-2s.

Employee Personal Page (EPP): Used by employees paid through the USDA National Finance Center (NFC). Access at epps.nfc.usda.gov. The layout looks slightly different from myPay, but every section covered in this guide applies to both.

Some agencies use agency-specific systems like Interior Business Center (IBC) or GSA payroll. Check with your HR office if you are not sure which system your agency uses.

One practical tip: turn on paperless delivery in your payroll portal. Your statement shows up the day it generates instead of arriving days later by mail.

Gross Pay: What You Earned Before Anything Comes Out

The top of your ELS shows your gross pay for the pay period. For GS employees, that is your annual base salary divided by 26 pay periods, plus anything extra you earned that period.

Common earnings lines:

Code	What It Means
Regular Pay	Your base biweekly salary
Overtime (OT)	Time worked beyond 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week (paid at 1.5x for most employees)
Sunday Premium	25% extra for work performed on Sundays
Holiday Premium	Additional pay for working on a federal holiday
Night Differential	10% extra for work between 6 PM and 6 AM
Locality Pay	The geographic pay adjustment added to your base salary

Your gross pay is the sum of all these lines. The GS Pay Calculator shows the exact biweekly number for your grade, step, and locality.

For more on how GS pay is structured, the GS Step Increases Timeline explains how your pay moves across steps within your grade over time.

Retirement Deductions: FERS and CSRS

Your retirement deduction is usually one of the bigger lines on the statement. The amount depends on which retirement system covers you and when you were hired.

FERS employees

The Federal Employees Retirement System applies to most employees hired after 1986. Your contribution rate depends on your hire date:

Hire Date	Employee Contribution Rate
Before January 1, 2013	0.8% of basic pay
January 1 to December 31, 2013	3.1% of basic pay
January 1, 2014 or later	4.4% of basic pay

So if you earn $80,000 per year and were hired in 2018, your biweekly FERS deduction is roughly $135 per pay period (4.4% of $80,000 / 26).

Your agency also contributes to the retirement fund on your behalf. That amount never shows up on your pay stub because it is paid directly and does not flow through your check.

Use the FERS Retirement Calculator to estimate the pension you are building with these contributions.

CSRS employees

The Civil Service Retirement System covers employees hired before 1984 who did not switch to FERS. CSRS employees contribute 7% to 8% of their salary to the retirement fund. Most contribute 7%.

An important difference: CSRS employees generally do not pay the Social Security (OASDI) tax. Instead, the higher retirement contribution funds their pension directly. CSRS employees do still pay the Medicare tax (1.45%).

TSP Contributions: Your Federal 401(k)

The Thrift Savings Plan works like a 401(k). Your TSP deduction shows how much of each paycheck is going into your account.

For 2026, the contribution limits are:

• Under age 50: Up to $24,500 per year
• Age 50 or older: Up to $32,500 (includes $8,000 catch-up)
• Ages 60 to 63: Up to $35,750 (higher catch-up under SECURE 2.0)

The agency match (FERS employees only)

The match is the most valuable thing to understand about TSP. FERS employees get an automatic 1% agency contribution every pay period with no action required. Then the agency matches dollar-for-dollar on the first 3% you contribute, and 50 cents per dollar on the next 2%.

To capture the full 5% match, you must contribute at least 5% every pay period. Not for the year as a whole. Every pay period.

Your Contribution	Agency Match	Total Going In
0%	1%	1%
3%	4%	7%
5%	5%	10%
10%	5%	15%

Warning: If you hit the $24,500 annual limit before December, your contributions go to $0 for those last pay periods, and so does your agency match. The spillover method prevents this. Ask your payroll office or check TSP.gov for setup instructions.

Your pay stub shows your TSP deduction as either "TSP Traditional" or "TSP Roth" depending on which type you selected. Traditional is pre-tax. Roth is after-tax.

The TSP Calculator shows what your balance could look like at retirement based on your current contribution rate.

FEHB: Health Insurance Premiums

Your FEHB deduction is your share of the health insurance premium. The government covers the larger portion: up to 72% of the weighted average premium, or 75% of your specific plan's total cost, whichever is less.

For 2026, the government's maximum biweekly contribution is $324.76 for Self Only, $711.17 for Self Plus One, and $778.03 for Family coverage. Average premiums went up about 12.3% this year. Your actual deduction depends entirely on which plan you picked. FEP Blue Focus runs $66.81 biweekly for Self Only. Comprehensive plans cost significantly more.

The tax angle matters here. Active employees pay FEHB premiums through premium conversion, meaning the deduction is pre-tax. A $300 biweekly premium does not just cut your income tax. It also saves 6.2% in Social Security tax and 1.45% in Medicare tax on that same amount. That is why your taxable wages on your W-2 end up lower than your actual gross pay.

The FEHB Calculator shows the true cost of each plan after the government contribution so you can compare apples to apples.

FEGLI: Life Insurance Premiums

Your FEGLI deduction covers whichever coverage options you have enrolled in. There are four:

Basic coverage equals your annual salary rounded up to the nearest $1,000, plus $2,000. You pay 15 cents per $1,000 of this amount per biweekly pay period, and your agency covers the rest. On a $75,000 salary, your Basic coverage is $77,000 and your share is $11.55 per period.

Option A adds a flat $10,000 of coverage. The biweekly cost ranges from $0.50 to $7.50 depending on your age bracket.

Option B is additional coverage in multiples of your salary, from 1x up to 5x. This one gets expensive as you age. Many employees find private term life insurance cheaper once they hit their 50s.

Option C covers your spouse and eligible dependent children in multiples of $5,000 for spouses and $2,500 for each child.

One thing most people miss: unlike FEHB premiums, FEGLI premiums are not pre-tax for most employees. They come out of after-tax income.

Tax Withholdings

Your pay stub has several tax lines. Each one is distinct.

Federal income tax

This is withholding based on your W-4 on file. The amount depends on your gross pay, filing status, and any extra withholding you requested. You can update your W-4 at any time through your payroll portal.

OASDI (Social Security tax)

OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. It is the Social Security tax, charged at 6.2% of wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500.

FERS employees pay OASDI. CSRS employees generally do not.

If you earn above $184,500, withholding stops once you hit the wage base. That is not an error. Your employer simply stops collecting once the cap is reached.

Medicare (HI)

Medicare tax runs 1.45% of all wages with no ceiling. If your wages exceed $200,000 (or $250,000 for married filing jointly), an additional 0.9% applies on top of that. Both FERS and CSRS employees pay Medicare.

State income tax

If your state has an income tax, withholding shows up here based on your state W-4. Nine states have no income tax, so this line may simply be blank.

Leave Balances: What the Bottom of Your Pay Stub Shows

The leave section sits at the bottom of your ELS and gets ignored more than any other part. That is a mistake. It shows your current balances, what you earned this period, and what you used.

Annual leave

Annual leave accrues every pay period. How much you earn depends on your years of federal service:

Service	Hours Earned Per Pay Period	Annual Total
Less than 3 years	4 hours	104 hours (13 days)
3 to 15 years	6 hours	160 hours (20 days)
15 or more years	8 hours	208 hours (26 days)

Use-or-lose limit: Most employees can carry a maximum of 240 hours of annual leave into a new leave year. Hours above 240 are forfeited at the end of the leave year unless you have an approved leave restoration request.

Check your balance in October. If you are getting close to 240, start scheduling leave. Hours above the limit disappear at the end of the leave year with no compensation.

Sick leave

All full-time employees earn 4 hours of sick leave per pay period, 104 hours per year. There is no carryover cap. Unlike annual leave, unused sick leave never disappears.

For FERS employees, sick leave at retirement converts to additional months of creditable service, which nudges your pension calculation higher. Do not burn it down unnecessarily in the years before you retire.

Other leave fields

Depending on your agency's payroll system, you may also see:

• Use-or-Lose: the annual leave hours you will forfeit if you do not use them before the leave year ends
• SCD Leave: your Service Computation Date for leave, which determines your accrual tier (4, 6, or 8 hours per period)
• Comp Time: compensatory time earned instead of overtime pay
• Credit Hours: extra hours worked under a flexible schedule that you can use as leave later

The Federal Leave Optimizer helps you plan leave strategically to hit 240 hours at year-end without going over.

Allotments and Other Deductions

Allotments are voluntary deductions you authorized. They go directly from your paycheck to another account or organization before you ever see the money.

Common ones include automatic bank transfers, union dues, Combined Federal Campaign (charity) contributions, U.S. Savings Bond purchases, and FSAFEDS flexible spending account contributions.

Allotments come out after taxes. They do not lower your taxable wages.

Calculate Your Exact Federal Pay

The GS Pay Calculator shows your gross biweekly pay by grade, step, and locality. If the number on your pay stub does not match what you calculate, that is worth a conversation with your HR office.

The FERS Retirement Calculator shows how your current contributions translate into a pension at different retirement ages.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my taxable wages number lower than my gross pay?

Pre-tax deductions come out before taxes are calculated. Traditional TSP contributions and FEHB premiums both reduce your taxable wages. That is why your federal income tax is based on a number lower than what you actually earned.

What is OASDI on my federal pay stub?

OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. It is the Social Security tax, set at 6.2% of your wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500. CSRS employees generally do not pay OASDI. FERS employees do.

How much does FERS take out of my paycheck?

It depends on when you were hired. Employees hired before 2013 contribute 0.8% of salary to FERS. Those hired in 2013 contribute 3.1%. Those hired in 2014 or later contribute 4.4%. These deductions appear as "Retirement" on your ELS.

Does my TSP contribution reduce my taxes?

Yes, if you contribute to Traditional TSP. Those contributions are pre-tax and lower your taxable wages for the year. Roth TSP contributions are made after-tax, so they do not reduce your current-year tax bill.

What does "SCD Leave" mean on my pay stub?

SCD stands for Service Computation Date. It is the date OPM uses to calculate how much annual leave you earn per pay period. The earlier your SCD, the higher your accrual rate: 4, 6, or 8 hours per pay period depending on your tier.

What is the use-or-lose limit for annual leave?

Most federal employees can carry over a maximum of 240 hours of annual leave into a new leave year. Any hours above that are forfeited at the end of the leave year unless you have approved restoration.

Related Resources

• GS Pay Calculator: See your exact biweekly gross pay by grade, step, and location
• FERS Retirement Calculator: Estimate the pension your contributions are building
• FEHB Calculator: Compare health plan costs and your share of premiums
• TSP Calculator: Project your TSP balance at retirement
• Federal Leave Optimizer: Plan your leave to avoid year-end forfeiture
• GS Step Increases Timeline: How your pay grows across steps over time

Sources:

• OPM: Annual Leave Fact Sheet
• OPM: Sick Leave Fact Sheet
• OPM: FEGLI Premium Information
• TSP.gov: Contribution Limits
• IRS: Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates
• SSA: 2026 COLA Fact Sheet
• DFAS: Understanding Your Civilian Pay