Your right to a payslip

Every employee and worker has a legal right to an itemised payslip on or before each payday. It must show your gross pay, each deduction and what it is for, and your net pay. If your pay varies with the time you work, as it does for bank staff, casual workers and many people on hourly rates, it must also show the hours you are paid for.

Who has the right

Employees and workers are both covered, so casual and bank staff have it as well as people on permanent contracts. Agency workers get their payslip from the agency or umbrella company that pays them, not from the hirer.

No length of service is needed. The right applies from your first payday.

What a payslip must show

An itemised payslip has to include:

• your gross pay, before any deductions
• the amount of each variable deduction and what it is for, such as income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions or a student loan
• fixed deductions, either itemised or as a total backed by a separate written statement of fixed deductions
• your net pay, after deductions
• where parts of your net pay are paid in different ways, the amount and method of each part
• the number of hours you are paid for, if your pay varies with time worked

The hours can appear as a single total or a breakdown by rate. If you work at different rates, such as a basic rate plus an enhanced rate for nights or weekends, a breakdown makes your pay much easier to check.

The law does not require your tax code or National Insurance category letter on the payslip. Nearly all payroll software prints them anyway, and both are worth a look. Our guide on how to read your payslip goes through each line.

Public sector payslips

NHS staff in England and Wales usually see their payslip through the Electronic Staff Record. Council and school staff get theirs through the council’s or academy trust’s HR system, or a payroll provider. Civil servants use departmental systems. All of these are electronic payslips, and they count for the legal right.

Public sector payslips can run long. A typical NHS one may show basic pay, unsocial hours enhancements, high cost area supplement, arrears and several pension and salary sacrifice lines. Teachers may see TLR or SEN allowances listed separately. When a pay award is backdated, the arrears often show up as their own line some months after the award was agreed.

If you do not get a payslip

Ask payroll or HR first, in writing. Most missing payslips turn out to be system problems or access issues, such as a lost login.

If your employer still does not provide one, you can apply to an employment tribunal for a declaration that it failed to give you an itemised payslip. If deductions were made that were never shown on a payslip, the tribunal can order the employer to repay them, even where they would otherwise have been lawful. ACAS early conciliation comes first.

Tribunal cases like this are rare in the public sector. Small employers, agencies and some umbrella companies are where they tend to arise.

Checking your payslip

Mistakes happen in large organisations, often when you change role, hours or band, start bank shifts, or come back from leave. A quick monthly check catches most of them:

• Is the basic pay right for your band, grade or spine point?
• Are enhancements and overtime for last month’s shifts included?
• Is the tax code what you expect? 1257L is the standard code for one job in 2026/27.
• Are pension contributions at the right tier for your pay?
• Do any deductions appear that you did not agree to?

If something looks wrong, tell payroll quickly. An underpayment can be claimed back as an unlawful deduction. An overpayment can usually be recovered by your employer, so flag it early and agree a repayment plan. Our take-home pay calculator gives a rough check of the tax and National Insurance on your salary.

P60, P45 and deductions

Your employer must give you a P60 after the end of each tax year if you are still employed then, and a P45 when you leave. If you think a deduction was not allowed, see deductions from wages. ACAS can explain the payslip rules by phone, and your union can take up a payroll problem if you are getting nowhere.