How to read a Philippine payslip, line by line

Separate basic pay from additional earnings

Basic pay is the compensation base commonly used in several statutory calculations, but a payslip can also contain overtime, night differential, holiday or rest-day premiums, commissions, taxable allowances, reimbursements, adjustments, and leave conversions. Those lines do not all receive identical tax or contribution treatment.

Ask two questions for every earning: what work or benefit created it, and how did payroll classify it? A transport reimbursement supported by company policy may not behave like a fixed taxable allowance. Likewise, a premium for work actually performed should be traceable to hours and the correct day type.

Read the statutory deductions as three different programs

SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG are separate programs with separate bases, schedules, ceilings, and employer shares. The employee deduction is not necessarily the total amount contributed: an employer portion may be reported elsewhere on the slip or not shown in the deductions column because it does not reduce your net pay.

Compare the contribution month and compensation basis, not only the percentage in your head. SSS uses a schedule of salary-credit rows, PhilHealth applies its premium rate within a salary floor and ceiling, and Pag-IBIG regular savings applies its own contribution rules. A single flat-rate shortcut can therefore create a misleading audit.

Understand withholding tax as a payroll estimate

Compensation withholding is money remitted toward income tax, not another social contribution. Payroll first determines taxable compensation under its records, considers relevant statutory deductions and benefit treatment, and applies the BIR withholding table for the pay period. The amount can change when a bonus, taxable allowance, correction, or prior payroll alters the year-to-date picture.

Do not compare withholding only with a coworker’s figure. Different taxable benefits, prior employment, payroll periods, or adjustments can produce different results at the same headline salary. The employer’s year-end annualization can also reconcile earlier withholding.

Reconcile gross pay to net pay

Use a simple bridge: total earnings minus statutory employee contributions, withholding tax, and other deductions should equal net pay, allowing for clearly labeled additions or reimbursements. If the arithmetic does not reconcile, first check whether an employer-only contribution or year-to-date total was mistakenly included in your subtraction.

Example: if total current-period earnings are ₱31,500 and employee deductions total ₱4,280, the expected net is ₱27,220. If the credited amount is ₱26,720, the unexplained ₱500 should be located in another deduction, adjustment, or separate payment—not dismissed as rounding.

Audit differences without jumping to a conclusion

Recalculate one layer at a time: earnings, contributions, taxable pay, withholding, other deductions, then net pay. Mark the first layer where the slip and your evidence differ. This makes a payroll question concrete—for example, “four approved night hours are missing” is easier to investigate than “my tax seems too high.”

A public calculator is an independent estimate. It cannot see the employer’s payroll calendar, benefit records, prior corrections, or supporting documents, so a variance is a prompt to investigate rather than proof of underpayment or overpayment.

What to bring to payroll or HR

Keep the request factual and protect unnecessary personal data. Include the pay period, exact line item, expected basis, and the smallest set of records that supports the question. Ask for the calculation or classification used, then compare the response with the applicable official rule.

• Payslip for the affected cutoff and, when relevant, the previous cutoff.
• Approved attendance, overtime, leave, or schedule record.
• Employment rate or written benefit policy relevant to the line.
• A link to the current official source—not an unsourced social post.
• Your own short arithmetic showing the difference.