Louisiana Paystub Generator

What Is a Louisiana Paystub?

A Louisiana paystub is the record that goes with each paycheck and shows how gross wages became the amount that reached the bank. The pieces that make a paystub usable are the same in every state: the pay period and pay date, hours and rate, each tax and deduction, net pay and a year-to-date column that should add up to the W-2 in January.

Louisiana stubs are shorter than most. Parishes and cities cannot tax wages, employees pay no state disability or paid leave premium and unemployment insurance is charged to the employer alone. That leaves four deduction lines: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Louisiana income tax, which is withheld at 3.09% under the 2026 tables even though the tax itself is a flat 3%.

How Do You Create a Louisiana Paystub?

Building a Louisiana paycheck stub takes four inputs and the arithmetic follows from there:

1. Employer and employee details, with the business address and the employee name as payroll has them.
2. The pay basis: hourly rate and hours or a salary, the pay frequency and the pay period dates.
3. Pay already received this year, so the year-to-date column reflects every earlier check rather than starting from zero.
4. The L-4 choice. Block A decides the state line, because the deduction claimed there is divided by the number of pay periods before the 3.09% is applied.

The general walkthrough of how to make paystub documents covers each field in order. After the preview, the stub downloads as a PDF a landlord or a lender can read without an explanation from you.

What Does a Louisiana Paystub Look Like?

A Louisiana check stub is usually one page in three bands. The employer and employee details with the pay period and pay date sit at the top. The middle splits earnings on the left from deductions on the right, each with a current column beside a year-to-date column. Gross pay, total deductions and net pay close the page, sometimes next to a check number.

For hospitality and restaurant work, which is a large share of weekly pay in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, tips belong on their own earnings line rather than being folded into the hourly rate, so the stub shows that cash wages plus tips cleared the federal minimum for the week. There is a real example further down this page with the Louisiana tax line and net pay highlighted.

The Risks of a Fake Louisiana Paystub

A Louisiana payroll check stub is a financial document, so inventing one carries real consequences rather than theoretical ones:

• Forgery is a felony in Louisiana. Under La. R.S. 14:72, issuing or possessing a forged writing with intent to defraud carries a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment for up to ten years or both.
• Federal charges follow the application. Using a fabricated stub to obtain a mortgage, a car loan or a credit line can bring federal bank or wire fraud charges, which carry far heavier penalties than the loan was worth.
• The numbers are checked. Lenders confirm income through employment verification services, bank deposits and tax transcripts requested straight from the IRS, so a stub that does not match payroll records stands out quickly.
• The fallout lasts. A loan obtained with false documents can be called in, a lease voided and a job offer withdrawn, long after the paperwork was filed.

Generating a stub for wages that were really earned is an ordinary record-keeping task. Use it to replace a stub an employer never issued or one that was lost, then back it up with matching deposits and your W-2.

Louisiana's Flat 3% Tax in 2026

Since January 1, 2025 Louisiana taxes individual income at a single 3% rate. Two things changed for 2026 paychecks:

• The standard deduction is indexed. It rose from $12,500 to $12,875 for single and married filing separately and from $25,000 to $25,750 for joint filers, qualifying surviving spouses and heads of household.
• New tables. The Department of Revenue issued R-1306 withholding tables effective for wages paid on or after January 1, 2026.

The tables withhold at 3.09% rather than 3%. The Department of Revenue built in that small cushion so fewer workers end up with a balance due when they file.

How Louisiana Withholding Is Calculated From Form L-4

Form L-4 (R-1300) replaced personal exemptions and dependent credits with one choice in block A: claim 0, 1 or 2 standard deductions. The 2026 formula divides the annual deduction by the number of pay periods, subtracts it from the check and multiplies what is left by 3.09%.

The same worker can see a Louisiana line anywhere from about $6 to $21 a week depending on the L-4. The formulas and wage bracket tables are in the 2026 R-1306 withholding tables. Anyone who chose 0 to avoid owing at tax time will get most of that extra withholding back as a refund.

No Parish or City Income Tax

The Louisiana Constitution bars parishes, cities and other political subdivisions from levying an income tax, so a Louisiana stub should never show a local wage tax. Local sales taxes are high in many parishes, but they have nothing to do with payroll. Louisiana also has no state disability or paid family leave program and state unemployment insurance is paid only by the employer, on the first $7,000 of each worker's wages in 2026.

Pay Statements in Louisiana

Louisiana law focuses on when wages are paid more than on what a stub must list and federal law requires employers to keep accurate payroll records of hours, pay and deductions. A stub is still the document employees are asked for most often, by lenders, landlords, car dealers and agencies checking income. The version they accept shows:

• Employer name and address and the employee's name
• The pay period, pay date and check or advice number
• Hours and rate or salary and gross pay
• Each tax and deduction with current and year-to-date amounts
• Net pay

The short labels payroll systems print for these lines are explained in the list of standard pay stub abbreviations and year-to-date totals are what most lenders read first.

Sample Louisiana Paystub Generator Output

Here is a preview from the generator for a New Orleans restaurant employee paid weekly. The Louisiana tax line and the net pay are highlighted.

Scenario: line cook at a restaurant at 1400 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70130, paid weekly. Pay period Sep 11 to Sep 17, 2026, pay date Sep 22, 2026, check number 7714. $17.00 an hour for 40 hours. This is the 38th paycheck of the year.

The $21.01 Louisiana line is 3.09% of the full $680, the result for an employee who claims no standard deduction on the L-4. Claiming 1 would lower it to $13.36 and add about $400 to take-home pay over a year.

Louisiana Minimum Wage 2026: $7.25 and the $2.13 Tipped Wage

Restaurant and hotel stubs in New Orleans often list cash wages and reported tips as separate earnings lines so the $7.25 floor can be checked for every week.

Paydays and Final Paychecks in Louisiana

• Pay frequency: manufacturers, mining and oil drilling companies with 10 or more employees and public service corporations must pay at least twice a month, about two weeks apart (La. R.S. 23:633). Clerical staff and salespeople are excluded. Other employers set their own regular paydays.
• Final pay: whether the employee quits or is let go, all wages owed are due by the next regular payday or within 15 days of separation, whichever comes first. Earned vacation pay counts as wages owed.
• Year-end forms: the L-3 annual reconciliation is filed electronically by January 31 and employers with 50 or more employees must file W-2s electronically.

The full text of the final pay rule is in La. R.S. 23:631.