What Actually is ER Health On a Pay Stub?

You might not know this, but not everyone actually gets pay stubs. You might be in a situation where you have recently moved to another state and you are just seeing a pay stub for the first time - or you might be a very recent graduate who has just earned their first paycheck (ps huge congratulations to you!) It is so important to truly understand the value of your paycheck - literally and also what it all means! Yeah, your paycheck contains a lot of important information such as your earnings and also any wage deductions that you might have. 

This is all down to the FSLA, otherwise known as The Fair Standards Labor Act, and this requires employers to keep records of exactly how many hours each and every employee has worked along with the amount of money that they have been paid. However, this does not mean that employers have to share this information with its employees. 

Paycheck laws actually vary by state, but this is not what we are here to talk about today. Here we are going to delve into what information is available on your pay stub, and more specifically what er health on your pay stub is.

Also read: How Often Do You Get A Paycheck?

What information can you find on your pay stub?

So, the whole purpose of a paycheck stub is to give you an overview of how your earnings have been distributed. The information that will be on your paystub is how much has been paid on your behalf to taxes, as well as how much has been deducted for benefits, and also the total amount that has been paid to you after your taxes and also your deductions have been taken.

It is true that paycheck stubs are usually divided into four sections. These sections are as follows: first of all you will have your personal and check information. Then you will have your earnings, followed by any deductions and lastly you will have the withholding balance.

Also read: Calculate Take Home Pay

How do you read a pay stub?

When you look at your paycheck stub, it might initially seem overwhelming and complicated. If this is the first paycheck stub that you have received then you will ultimately be extremely confused. However, your paycheck stub can be broken down into readable segments that will make a lot more sense.

1. Period end/issue date - this is a section that outlines the beginning and also the end dates of the payroll, and also the actual pay date.

2. District/pay location - this is your home address.

3. Leave balance - this is information about your specific job.

4. Federal State - this is your federal and state filing status.

5. Gross earnings - these are your current and also your year to date hours and earnings.

6. Deductions - this is the federal and state current and also year to date taxes that have been withheld.

7. Employee - this is the employee tax deductions.

8. Employer - this is the employer tax deductions.

9. Year to date - this is employer paid benefits, this is the portion of your benefits that are paid by your employer. These are not deductions from your earnings.

10. Summary - let’s just class this as being the summary section of your pay stub.

What exactly is on a pay stub?

So, if we continue to break this down further it is pretty clear that your pay stub contains a whole host of information. 

There is Personal and Check information which includes your personal information along with your filing status (if you are married) as well as the withholding number according to your IRS form.

In case it wasn’t totally obvious, the earnings section actually shows your earnings from the pay period. This also includes overtime. This section will also show pre-tax deductions for the different employee benefits that you might receive. This can include health insurance and also retirement contributions.

The deductions section will show any additional deductions which might end up being taken out of your paycheck after tax. This can include things like group life insurance or even disability insurance. 

Withholding refers to the money which your employer has to take out of your paycheck on your behalf. This also includes federal and state income tax payments along with Social Security, Unemployment Insurance and also Worker’s Comp.

Also read: 5 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs Pay Stubs Right Now

What does er on a pay stub actually mean?

To keep this as simple and straightforward as possible, er stands for ‘Employer Responsible’. This refers to the money that your employer pays for your healthcare coverage. There are also other abbreviations which can mean the same thing, and these abbreviations include ‘ER HCV’ and also ‘ER Health Cov’. 

There are a lot of employers who subsidise health insurance, but it is important to remember that this is not a deduction from your paycheck. This does not have an effect on your income or on your taxes.

The reason as to why this appears on your pay stub is because this is required by The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The information is not actually needed or it is not actually used by you, your employer, the government or anyone else for that matter.

Also read: What Are the Main Differences Between Salary and Hourly Paystubs?

Understanding the deductions in your pay stub

So, the common pay stub deductions include federal and state income tax, along with Social Security. Here’s the thing, these federal and state withholdings actually account for a whole lot of differences between your gross income and your net income. There could end up being other deductions too, but this all depends on the programs which you sign up for with your employer.

If you are wondering how much tax is taken out of a paycheck, well, here is the answer. In a payroll period, the taxes that are deducted from your paycheck typically include Social Security and Medicare taxes, which is otherwise referred to as FICA (or the Federal Insurance Contributions Act). In fact, the following taxes and deductions are what you can really expect to see on your paycheck. 

Also read: What is The Importance Of Keeping Your Pay Stub?

Understanding federal income taxes

Let’s talk about federal income taxes for a second. So, the federal government is entitled to a portion of your income from each paycheck. This is also known as your withholding tax, which is a partial payment of your annual income taxes which get sent directly to the government. These payments are managed specifically by the IRS.

So, the amount of money which is withheld for federal taxes all depends on the amount of money that you are earning along with the information which you give your employer. This information is something that you will have outlined in your W-4 form, or your Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate.

For each allowance that you take then there will be less money which gets withheld for federal taxes, so as a result of this more money will get added to your paycheck. Ultimately, if you take fewer allowances then a bigger chunk of your income will end up getting held for your federal taxes.

Understanding state taxes

The key to understanding state taxes is pretty dependent on where exactly you live. So, depending on where you live you might not actually be required to pay a kind of state income tax. Similarly to federal taxes, money for state taxes is withheld from each and every paycheck.

Let’s take a look at social security

The federal government requires each working American citizen to contribute a specific portion of their paycheck to Social Security. This is a system of supplemental retirement programs which was established in 1935. The social security fund provides benefits to current Social Security recipients.

In conclusion

Here’s the thing, paychecks have a whole lot of information for you to soak up. And, it can be especially tricky to navigate through your payslip if you have never seen one before. But hopefully we have helped you to work out what exactly your payslip is trying to tell you.