Every Irish payslip follows the same shape, no matter which software your employer uses (BrightPay, Sage, Thesaurus or a bureau). Read it in three blocks: what you earned, what was taken off, and what landed in your bank.
1. Gross pay — what you earned
- Basic pay — contracted hours × your hourly rate (or salary ÷ pay periods).
- Overtime — usually shown separately, often at 1.5× or 2×.
- Bonuses, shift or attendance premiums — taxable unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Gross pay is the total of all of these before any deduction.
2. Statutory deductions — what Revenue takes
- PAYE — income tax. Charged at 20% up to your standard rate cut-off point, then 40% above it. This is why extra overtime can feel like it "disappeared".
- PRSI — social insurance, most employees are Class A1 at 4.1% of gross.
- USC — Universal Social Charge, banded, applied to nearly all gross pay.
3. Other deductions
Pension or PRSA contributions (usually deducted before PAYE, so they reduce your taxable pay), income continuance, health insurance, bike-to-work, union fees, or salary-sacrifice items.
4. The check that matters
Gross pay − statutory deductions − other deductions + any non-taxable additions should equal net pay exactly. If it doesn't, something on the payslip is mislabelled or missing. MySalaryPal runs this balance check on every payslip you upload and tells you the euro amount of any gap.
5. Year-to-date columns
The YTD column is cumulative for the tax year. Because PAYE in Ireland is cumulative, a tax credit change mid-year can produce a refund in a single week — that's normal, not an error.