What a payslip must show, by country
Whether the employer has to hand over a payslip and what is on it. Australia sets the tightest clock, one working day after pay, while Britain and the Netherlands say at or on every payment and Norway allows it to follow straight after. Britain and the Netherlands list the items the statement must carry; Australia leaves the contents to regulations and Spain to an approved model.
| Country | When it is due | Form | What it must show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Within one working day of paying | Whatever the regulations prescribe; it must not be false or misleading | |
| Spain | Individual receipt, on the ministry’s model unless a collective agreement sets another | The different payments received and the legal deductions, clearly separated | |
| Netherlands | With every payment of wages, unless no amount has changed since the last one | Written or electronic; electronic needs the employee’s express consent | Gross wage, itemised parts and itemised deductions, the minimum hourly wage for the employee’s age, names of employer and employee, pay period and agreed working hours |
| Norway | At payment or straight after | Written statement | How the wages are calculated, the basis for holiday pay and the deductions made |
| United Kingdom | At or before each payment of wages or salary | Written, itemised | Gross pay, each deduction and its purpose, net pay, how part-payments are made, and total hours worked where pay varies with time |
Country by country
Australia
- Rule
- Fair Work Act 2009 s 536
- Applies to national system employers and their employees. The Act itself lists no items: the required content and any prescribed form come from regulations, which are not ingested here.
- An employer must not give a pay slip it knows is false or misleading.
An employer must give a pay slip to each of its employees within one working day of paying an amount to the employee in relation to the performance of work.include any information prescribed by the regulationsAn employer must not give a pay slip for the purposes of this section that the employer knows is false or misleading. Spain
- Rule
- Estatuto de los Trabajadores art. 29.1
- Pay itself must be settled at the agreed date and place and the pay period cannot exceed a month; the article does not say on which day the receipt must be handed over.
- A collective agreement, or an agreement between the company and the workers’ representatives, may replace the ministry model if it keeps the payments and deductions clearly separate.
mediante la entrega al trabajador de un recibo individual y justificativo del pago del mismoEl recibo de salarios se ajustará al modelo que apruebe el Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Socialque contenga con la debida claridad y separación las diferentes percepciones del trabajador, así como las deducciones que legalmente procedan Netherlands
- Rule
- Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 7 art. 626
- The statement must also say whether there is a written permanent contract and whether it is an on-call contract.
- The rule cannot be departed from to the employee’s disadvantage.
De werkgever is verplicht bij elke voldoening van het in geld vastgestelde loon de werknemer een schriftelijke of elektronische opgave te verstrekken van het loonbedrag, van de gespecificeerde bedragen waaruit dit is samengesteld, van de gespecificeerde bedragen die op het loonbedrag zijn ingehoudentenzij zich ten opzichte van de vorige voldoening in geen van deze bedragen een wijziging heeft voorgedaande termijn waarover het loon is berekend, de overeengekomen arbeidsduurVoor het verstrekken van een elektronische opgave is uitdrukkelijke instemming van de werknemer vereist.Van dit artikel kan niet ten nadele van de werknemer worden afgeweken. Norway
- Rule
- Arbeidsmiljøloven § 14-15 (6)
- The statement is required in the Working Environment Act chapter on pay; the Act sets no further list of items.
Ved utbetalingen eller straks etter denne skal arbeidstaker ha skriftlig oppgave over beregningsmåten for lønn, beregningsgrunnlaget for feriepenger og trekk som er foretatt. United Kingdom
- Rule
- Employment Rights Act 1996 s 8
- The right belongs to a worker. Fixed deductions can be shown as a standing statement under section 9, which is not quoted here.
A worker has the right to be given by his employer, at or before the time at which any payment of wages or salary is made to him, a written itemised pay statement.the gross amount of the wages or salarythe purposes for which they are madethe net amount of wages or salary payablethe total number of hours worked in respect of the variable amount of wages or salary Countries not in this table yet
The United States, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden and Japan are not shown. Their ingested acts do not state a duty to give the employee a payslip; the Japanese Labour Standards Act § 108 requires a wage ledger, which is an employer record rather than a statement to the employee.
How this table was built
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The table shows the statutory minimum only. Collective agreements, awards and individual contracts often give more than the statute, and some countries let a collective agreement set different terms.
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LawAsked, “What a payslip must show, by country”, https://lawasked.com/guides/payslip-requirements (reviewed October 25, 2026).
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