Understanding your payslip

Example of a pay statement

Section on pay statement

Description
1 Employee and pay period details: Along with your name and the employer name, this section displays your employee ID number. This is a unique identifier that is assigned to you for HR and Payroll purposes. When contacting HR with an inquiry you will generally be asked to provide your name and employee ID number. The pay period begin and end dates tell you the regular period of time the pay covers. If pay information was submitted late and missed being processed in a prior period, this may not reflect the period for which you are being paid. The Cheque Date is the date on which the payment was issued.
2 Current and year-to-date totals: This section summarizes the details shown below on your pay statement and includes totals for the current calendar year (YTD).
3

Earnings: This section lists regular and additional earnings, such as stipends, shift premiums, vacation, sick pay, holiday pay, or overtime paid in the current pay period as well as the total for the current calendar year (YTD).

Monthly paid employees: Base earnings for employees paid on a monthly basis are based on 1/12th of annual salary and reported in hours. For example, an employee with a 35 hour regular work week will see a total of 154 hours per month. This is calculated based on an average of 22 working days per month, which may not correspond to the actual number of working days in a given month.

Bi-weekly paid employees: Earnings for employees paid on a bi-weekly basis will show hours and an hourly rate where applicable.

Payments that are related to late submissions or retroactive changes, will show dates that are different from the pay period begin and end dates for the current period.

4 Employee taxes: This section shows the mandatory government Canadian Pension Plan (CPP)Employment Insurance (EI), and Federal and Provincial Income Tax from your pay as well as totals for the current calendar year (YTD).
5

Deductions: This section shows any deductions from your pay such as parking fees, United Way donations, union or association fees, benefit premiums, and university pension plan contributions for both the current pay period and current calendar year (YTD).

6 Employer paid benefits: Employer paid benefits are paid by the university and are not deductions from your pay. This includes the university’s share of any applicable benefit premiums such as dental, extended health, and life insurance.
7 Tax withholding details: This section lists the Federal and Provincial tax credit amounts from your TD1 elections, any additional income tax amounts you have requested to have deducted from your pay, and any additional tax reductions authorized by the CRA.  It is important to review this information on an annual basis and submit updated TD1 elections as necessary.
8 Payment information: This section shows your net pay (total gross for the current pay, less total taxes and total deductions). This is the amount that is deposited to your bank account on the pay date. The bank account number to which your net pay is deposited is also listed, but is partially obscured for privacy reasons.