The right: under section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, a worker has the right to a written itemised pay statement — the payslip — given at or before the time wages are paid. GOV.UK puts the same timing as "on or before payday", and extends it to employees and "workers" alike.
What it must show (s 8(2)): the gross amount; the amounts and purposes of any variable and (subject to s 9) fixed deductions; the net amount payable; the amount and method of any part-payments made in different ways; and — where pay varies by reference to time worked — the total number of hours worked (a single aggregate figure, or split by type of work / rate of pay). The hours line has been mandatory since 6 April 2019.
The record: HMRC requires employers to keep PAYE and payroll records for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to. Fail to keep full records and HMRC "may estimate what you have to pay and charge you a penalty of up to £3,000."
The right: an itemised pay statement, at or before payday
The UK payslip is not a courtesy — it is a statutory right, and the statute is precise about who holds it and when it crystallises. Section 8(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 says it plainly: "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." Two things are worth pinning down in that sentence. First, the holder is a worker — a broader category than "employee", so casual and agency-style workers can be inside it. Second, the timing is fixed to the payment: the statement is due at or before the moment wages are paid, not "soon after".
GOV.UK's employee-facing guidance states the same right in everyday terms — "Your employer must provide you with a payslip" — and its employer-facing running-payroll guidance is blunt about scope and timing: "You must give your employees and your 'workers' a payslip on or before their payday." The payslip can be printed and handed over or sent electronically; GOV.UK treats both as fine.
The right is not universal. GOV.UK lists people who are not entitled to a payslip, including contractors and freelancers, police officers, merchant seamen, and members of the crew of a share fishing vessel (paid solely by a share in the profits or gross earnings). If you are outside the "worker" definition, or in one of these carve-outs, the s 8 right does not reach you.
What the payslip must show: the s.8(2) list
The contents are set by section 8(2), and it is a closed list of required particulars. A statement complying with s 8 "shall contain particulars of" —
- (a) the gross amount of the wages or salary;
- (b) the amounts of any variable, and (subject to section 9) any fixed, deductions from that gross amount and the purposes for which they are made;
- (c) the net amount of wages or salary payable;
- (d) where different parts of the net amount are paid in different ways, the amount and method of payment of each part-payment; and
- (e) where pay varies by reference to time worked, the total number of hours worked in respect of the variable amount — as a single aggregate figure, or as separate figures for different types of work or different rates of pay.
GOV.UK compresses (a)–(c) and (e) into the plain-English version every payroll operator will recognise: a payslip must show "pay before any deductions ('gross' wages)", "deductions to pay like tax and National Insurance", "pay after deductions ('net' wages)", and "the number of hours worked, if the pay varies depending on time worked". Anything beyond that list — the employee's National Insurance number, tax code, rate of pay, or year-to-date totals — GOV.UK describes as information the payslip can also include. Useful, common, but not legally mandatory.
- Gross pay — the amount before any deductions (ERA 1996 s 8(2)(a); GOV.UK "gross wages").
- Variable deductions — the amount, and the purpose, of each deduction that can change each pay period, such as tax and National Insurance (s 8(2)(b); GOV.UK).
- Fixed deductions — the amount and purpose, unless you instead give a separate standing statement of fixed deductions under s 9 (see below), in which case an aggregate figure on the payslip is allowed.
- Net pay — the amount actually payable after deductions (s 8(2)(c); GOV.UK "net wages").
- Part-payments — where net pay is paid by more than one method, the amount and method of each (s 8(2)(d)).
- Hours worked — the total number of hours, only where pay varies by reference to time worked (s 8(2)(e), in force 6 April 2019; GOV.UK).
The hours line: mandatory since 6 April 2019, but only when pay varies by time
The hours requirement is the newest limb of s 8 and the one most often misread. It was inserted as s 8(2)(e) by the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 (SI 2018/147), and came into force on 6 April 2019 — legislation.gov.uk's textual amendment note records exactly that. Before that date there was no obligation to state hours on a payslip at all.
The trigger is narrow: the total number of hours must be shown only "where the amount of wages or salary varies by reference to time worked". For an hourly worker, a zero-hours worker, or anyone whose pay moves with the hours they put in, the payslip must carry the hours behind the variable pay — and the employer may present them either as one aggregate figure or broken down by different types of work or different rates of pay. For an employee on a fixed salary that does not move with hours, s 8(2)(e) simply does not engage, and GOV.UK's conditional phrasing — "if the pay varies depending on time worked" — reflects that.
Fixed deductions and the s.9 standing statement
Section 8(2)(b) is expressly "subject to section 9", and section 9 is the relief valve for repetitive fixed deductions. Rather than itemising every fixed deduction (a season-ticket loan repayment, say) on every payslip, an employer may show the aggregate of fixed deductions on the payslip provided it has given the worker a standing statement of fixed deductions — a separate written statement setting out, for each fixed deduction, the amount, the intervals at which it is made, and its purpose. GOV.UK describes the same mechanism from the practical side: fixed-amount deductions can be explained either on the payslip itself or "a separate written statement" given before the first payslip, with the statement kept up to date.
The standing statement is not a one-off. Section 9 requires it to be reissued (or the worker given an amended, consolidated version) at intervals of not more than 12 months, and it can be amended in the meantime by written notice of the change. Section 9 itself was carried into the "worker" framing on 6 April 2019, in step with the hours amendment. Note what s 9 does not do: it does not touch variable deductions — tax and National Insurance always have to be shown as amounts on the payslip, never bundled into a standing statement.
The employer's side: keep the payroll record for 3 years
The payslip is the worker-facing output; behind it sits the employer's own record-keeping duty, and here the authority is HMRC. GOV.UK's PAYE record-keeping guidance states the retention period directly: your records must show you have reported accurately, and "you need to keep them for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to." That is the figure to plan around — 3 years from the end of the tax year the records relate to, not three years from the pay date. (GOV.UK, PAYE and payroll for employers — keeping records.)
What has to be kept is broader than the payslips themselves. HMRC lists the records as: what you paid your employees and the deductions you made; the reports and payments you made to HMRC; employee leave and sickness absences; tax code notices; and details of any taxable expenses or benefits (plus, if you run one, Payroll Giving Scheme documents). The consequence of gaps is spelled out: "If you do not keep full records, HMRC may estimate what you have to pay and charge you a penalty of up to £3,000." And if records are lost, stolen or destroyed, HMRC's instruction is to tell them, do your best to recreate the figures, and flag on your final payroll report of the year whether any figures are estimated or provisional.
The payslip obligation is about timing of delivery — at or before payday, every pay period (ERA 1996 s 8). The record-retention obligation is about how long you hold the evidence — 3 years from the end of the tax year (HMRC). They come from different bodies of law (employment rights vs. tax administration) and are enforced by different routes. Meeting one says nothing about meeting the other: you can issue perfect payslips and still fall foul of HMRC by binning the underlying records too early.
Where this sits in the UK payroll picture
Payslips and records are the visible tip of duties that begin earlier in the pay run. The deductions a payslip itemises — Income Tax and National Insurance — and the workplace-pension line that often appears alongside them are set out in PAYE, National Insurance & auto-enrolment. The gross figure the payslip opens with has to clear the statutory floor covered in Minimum wage & wage rules — and where pay varies by hours, that floor and the s 8(2)(e) hours line lean on the same underlying time records. And the statutory-pay and absence lines (sick pay, family leave) that flow onto a payslip, and into the records HMRC wants kept, are in Leave & statutory pay. Start from the United Kingdom payroll hub for the full sequence.
Quick answers
What must a UK payslip show?
A UK payslip must show the gross pay (pay before any deductions), the amount of any variable deductions such as tax and National Insurance, and the net pay (pay after deductions). Where pay varies by the amount of time worked, it must also show the number of hours worked. These requirements come from section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which entitles a worker to a written itemised pay statement setting out the gross amount of wages or salary, the amounts of any variable and (subject to section 9) fixed deductions and the purposes for which they are made, the net amount payable, the amount and method of any part-payments made in different ways, and — where pay varies by reference to time worked — the total number of hours worked. GOV.UK adds that a payslip can also carry optional extra detail such as the National Insurance number, tax code and year-to-date totals, but those are not required.
Who is entitled to a payslip, and when must it be given?
Employers must give a payslip to their employees and to their workers, and GOV.UK states it must be provided on or before payday. Section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 fixes the moment as 'at or before the time at which any payment of wages or salary is made'. The right does not extend to everyone: GOV.UK lists contractors and freelancers, police officers, merchant seamen and members of share fishing crews among those not entitled to a payslip. Payslips may be printed and handed over or sent electronically.
Does a UK payslip have to show the hours worked?
Only where pay varies by the amount of time worked. Since 6 April 2019, section 8(2)(e) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 — inserted by the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 (SI 2018/147) — requires the payslip to state the total number of hours worked in respect of the variable amount of pay, either as a single aggregate figure or as separate figures for different types of work or different rates of pay. If pay does not vary with hours worked — for example a fixed salary — there is no obligation to show hours. GOV.UK mirrors the rule: 'the number of hours worked, if the pay varies depending on time worked'.
How long must a UK employer keep payroll records?
HMRC requires employers to keep PAYE and payroll records for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to. GOV.UK's wording is: 'you need to keep them for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to.' The records include what you paid your employees and the deductions you made, the reports and payments you made to HMRC, employee leave and sickness absences, tax code notices, and any taxable expenses or benefits. If you do not keep full records, HMRC may estimate what you have to pay and charge a penalty of up to 3,000 pounds.
Every payslip line that the Employment Rights Act names, generated from the pay run and kept for as long as HMRC asks
Ledra Pay's UK country pack assembles the itemised pay statement from the run itself — gross, the variable tax and National Insurance deductions with their purposes, net, part-payments, and the hours line whenever pay varies by time — issues it on or before payday, and retains the underlying payroll record on an auditable timeline that clears HMRC's 3-year rule without anyone having to remember the date.
See UK coverage →Government sources
- GOV.UK — Understanding your payslip (employee-facing: "Your employer must provide you with a payslip"; provided "on or before payday"; must show earnings before and after deductions, variable deductions like tax and National Insurance, and the number of hours worked if pay varies by time; contractors/freelancers, police officers, merchant seamen and share fishing crew not entitled; fixed deductions may be shown on the payslip or a separate written statement).
- GOV.UK — Running payroll: Payslips (employer-facing: "You must give your employees and your 'workers' a payslip on or before their payday"; payslips must show gross wages, deductions like tax and National Insurance, net wages, and hours worked if pay varies by time; may also include NI number, tax code and year-to-date totals; may be printed or sent electronically).
- legislation.gov.uk — Employment Rights Act 1996, section 8 (Itemised pay statement) (s 8(1) worker's right to a written itemised pay statement at or before the time wages are paid; s 8(2)(a)–(e) required particulars — gross amount, variable and (subject to s 9) fixed deductions and their purposes, net amount, part-payments, and total hours worked where pay varies by time; s 8(2)(e) inserted by SI 2018/147 with effect from 6 April 2019).
- legislation.gov.uk — Employment Rights Act 1996, section 9 (Standing statement of fixed deductions) (an aggregate of fixed deductions may be shown on the pay statement where the worker has been given a standing written statement of the amount, intervals and purpose of each fixed deduction; reissued/consolidated at intervals of not more than 12 months; "worker" framing in force 6 April 2019).
- GOV.UK — PAYE and payroll for employers: Keeping records ("you need to keep them for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to"; records to keep — payments and deductions, reports and payments to HMRC, leave and sickness, tax code notices, taxable expenses or benefits; "If you do not keep full records, HMRC may estimate what you have to pay and charge you a penalty of up to £3,000"; guidance on lost/stolen/destroyed records).
Related
The National Minimum and Living Wage rates, the pay-reference period, and the hours records that sit under the gross figure.
The Income Tax and National Insurance deductions your payslip itemises, plus the workplace-pension duty.
Sick pay, family leave and the statutory-pay lines that flow onto a payslip and into the records HMRC wants kept.