Meaning & use
pay slip
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A piece of paper or an electronic document showing how much an employee has been paid and what was taken out.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a pay slip, two pay slips. Often used with "on": on your pay slip.
Patterns
- a pay slip
- on your pay slip
- receive/get a pay slip
Your pay slip shows your gross pay, tax, and national insurance.
I checked my pay slip and noticed the overtime was missing.
Employees can download their pay slips from the company website.
Word forms
| plural | pay slips |
|---|
Common combinations
- monthly pay slip
- She keeps every monthly pay slip in a folder.
- electronic pay slip
- The company now issues an electronic pay slip instead of paper.
- check your pay slip
- Always check your pay slip for mistakes.
- on your pay slip
- The deduction is listed on your pay slip.
Synonyms and how they differ
- payslip
- Same meaning, but the one-word spelling is more common in American English.
- wage slip
- A less common term, often used for weekly wages rather than a monthly salary.
Word family
- pay noun
- Money received for work.
- payroll noun
- The list of employees and the total amount paid to them.
Commonly confused: pay slip or payslip? pay slip or paycheck?
pay slip vs payslip
Same thing, but spelled as one word; both are correct, though "pay slip" is more usual in British English.
pay slip vs paycheck
A paycheck is the actual payment (often a check), while a pay slip is the document explaining the payment.
Practice
Complete the sentence: "I need to check my ___ to see how much tax was deducted."
Choose one answer.
The singular countable noun "pay slip" fits after "my." "Pay slips" would need a plural context, the possessive "pay slip's" is wrong here, and "pay slipping" is not a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pay slip”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.