What Is YTD on a Pay Stub?

YTD stands for year to date. On a pay stub, it's the running total of each line — hours, earnings, every tax, every deduction, net pay — from the first pay date of the calendar year through the pay date on that stub. Three rules decide every YTD number:

1. It's per calendar year, starting fresh with the first pay date in January.
2. It's counted by pay date, not by the dates you worked.
3. It's per employer. A new job starts a new YTD.

How YTD carries from one stub to the next

Each stub's YTD is the previous stub's YTD plus the current amounts:

This stub's YTD = last stub's YTD + this stub's current amount

An employee earns $2,000 biweekly in Texas, single with a standard 2026 W-4. Every paycheck has the same current amounts: $156.15 federal tax, $124.00 Social Security, $29.00 Medicare and $1,690.85 net. Here's YTD for pay dates 5 through 8:

Pay date	YTD gross	YTD federal	YTD Social Security	YTD Medicare	YTD net
5 · Mar 6, 2026	$10,000.00	$780.75	$620.00	$145.00	$8,454.25
6 · Mar 20, 2026	$12,000.00	$936.90	$744.00	$174.00	$10,145.10
7 · Apr 3, 2026	$14,000.00	$1,093.05	$868.00	$203.00	$11,835.95
8 · Apr 17, 2026	$16,000.00	$1,249.20	$992.00	$232.00	$13,526.80

Each row adds exactly one paycheck. If a stub's YTD jumps by anything other than its current amount, something was missed or double-counted.

Rounding: why YTD can be a cent off

Each paycheck's tax is rounded to the cent, and YTD adds the rounded amounts. Three weekly paychecks of $720, $828 and $648 withhold $44.64, $51.34 and $40.18 in Social Security, which is $136.16 YTD. But 6.2% of the $2,196 total is $136.15. Real payroll systems produce the same small drift. A few cents over a year is normal; dollars are not.

Starting mid-year

New job. YTD starts at your first paycheck with the new employer. Someone hired June 1, 2026 whose first pay date is June 12 has a first stub where YTD equals current. Earnings from the old job stay on the old employer's stubs and W-2. You'll get two W-2s for the year.

Same employer, new payroll system. The employer, and so the W-2, hasn't changed. The new system must start from the old system's YTD, or the year-end W-2 will be short. The same applies when you create stubs with us partway through the year: enter the totals from your most recent real stub as prior YTD, and our generator adds each new stub on top. We never invent the earlier paychecks.

The year boundary

Because YTD follows the pay date, the first paycheck in January resets YTD even if every hour on it was worked in December.

Work period	Pay date	Counts toward
Dec 13–26, 2026	Thu, Dec 31, 2026	2026 YTD and the 2026 W-2
Dec 13–26, 2026	Mon, Jan 4, 2027	2027 YTD and the 2027 W-2
Dec 27, 2026 – Jan 9, 2027	Fri, Jan 15, 2027	2027

This isn't hypothetical. A biweekly Friday schedule that paid on December 18, 2026 has its next payday on January 1, 2027, which is New Year's Day, a Federal Reserve holiday. Paying early on December 31 puts that check in 2026 and gives the employee 27 paychecks in 2026's YTD. Paying on the next business day puts it in 2027.

Where YTD triggers tax changes

Some taxes switch on or off based on YTD wages at one employer:

• Social Security stops when YTD Social Security wages reach $184,500 in 2026. On a $190,000 salary paid semimonthly, $7,916.67 per paycheck, Social Security is $490.83 a check until the final December paycheck. YTD wages are $182,083.41 before that check, so only $2,416.59 more is taxable, and that check's Social Security is $149.83.
• Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% starts in the pay period when YTD wages pass $200,000.
• State caps follow YTD too. New York Paid Family Leave stops at $411.91 of contributions in 2026. California SDI has no wage cap.

With two jobs, each employer applies the Social Security cap separately. If combined withholding goes over the maximum, the IRS lets you claim the excess as a credit on your tax return.

YTD and your W-2

Your last stub of the year is a preview of your W-2. YTD gross, adjusted for pre-tax deductions, becomes Box 1. YTD Social Security and Medicare wages become Boxes 3 and 5, and the YTD tax lines become Boxes 2, 4 and 6. If December YTD and the W-2 disagree, one of them is wrong. Our W-2 generator page shows the box-by-box mapping.

Why reviewers read YTD first

A single stub shows one pay period. YTD shows the trend. Mortgage lenders compare YTD earnings with the prior year to judge whether income is stable. Under Fannie Mae's base-income guidance, if YTD covers less than 30 days, the lender must confirm it's consistent with the prior year. Our guide to pay stubs for loan applications covers how lenders use these figures.

Stubs whose YTD doesn't add up raise questions fast. Build yours on our free preview, where every YTD column is computed from your prior totals and each stub in the order.