Paychecks · Video Lesson
How to Read a Pay Stub — Video Lesson
A short instructional video that walks students through every line of a real pay stub — the ideal way to introduce paycheck vocabulary before a hands-on worksheet or a full lesson.
What Students Learn
Learning objectives
- What a pay stub is and why employees should review it every pay period
- How to locate gross pay, net pay, and each deduction on a real pay stub
- Common payroll tax terms — FICA, Social Security, Medicare — and what they fund
- Why take-home pay is always less than the hourly wage times hours worked
- How employer benefits like health insurance appear as deductions on a pay stub
For Teachers
How to use this resource
Play this video as a class introduction before distributing the Earnings Statement Worksheet or starting the First Paycheck, Real Choices lesson. It establishes common vocabulary quickly so students spend classroom time on application, not definitions. It also works well as a homework preview — assign it the night before a paycheck unit so students arrive ready to dig into the numbers.
Related Resources
Continue the paycheck unit
Premium Lesson
First Paycheck, Real Choices: Building Your First Monthly Budget
This video is the ideal warm-up for the flagship lesson — use it first, then have students read Jordan Rivera’s pay stub and build a complete monthly budget around their take-home pay.
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