Pay Stub Requirements in Missouri

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Coverage is based on employer type

Missouri Revised Statutes § 290.080 names “all corporations doing business in this state” and “all persons operating railroads or railroad shops in this state.” It does not phrase the statement duty as applying to every form of ordinary private employer.

The section permits executive, administrative, professional, sales, and commission-compensated employees to be paid monthly at the employer's option. That pay-frequency exception does not remove the following sentence's at-least-monthly deduction statement.

The required statement is a deduction total

The covered employer may put the statement on the check, draft, or other wage payment voucher, or furnish it separately. At least once a month, it must show “the total amount of deductions for the period.”

The section does not require each deduction's purpose or separately list gross wages, net pay, hours, rates, pay basis, pay-period dates, party identifiers, allowances, tips, leave balances, or employer contributions.

The statute does not resolve electronic format

Section 290.080 speaks of a statement that may accompany a check, draft, or other voucher or be furnished separately. It does not expressly authorize or forbid an electronic statement and states no consent, paper-opt-out, printing, storage, or portal-access rule.

Minimum-wage records are a separate obligation

Missouri Revised Statutes § 290.520 requires employers covered by the state minimum-wage provisions to retain specified payroll records for at least three years. Those records include employee identity and occupation, rate, amount paid each pay period, daily and weekly hours, and covered goods or services.

The section opens those records to the state labor director by appointment. It does not create an employee request-and-copy procedure, and it should not be converted into a broader employee-facing pay-stub field list.

Each offense can produce a misdemeanor fine

Section 290.080 makes a violation a misdemeanor. Upon conviction, the fine is at least $50 and no more than $500 for each offense. The section states no private statutory-damages amount, attorney-fee award, cure period, or civil claim deadline for a missing or inaccurate deduction statement.

What trips people up

Missouri does not require a detailed earnings calculation in this provision. The express employee-facing content is the total deductions for the period.

The statement deadline is at least once a month even though most covered employees are paid semimonthly. The statement need not accompany every wage payment under the words of § 290.080.

The three-year rule in § 290.520 is an underlying payroll-record duty for state-minimum-wage employers, not an employee right to receive three years of old stubs.

Common questions

Must a covered Missouri employer issue a statement every payday?

No. Section 290.080 says at least once a month, although the statement may be part of a wage-payment voucher.

Must the statement itemize each deduction?

The statute requires the total amount of deductions for the period. It does not expressly require each deduction and its purpose to be listed separately.

Does the statement have to show gross and net pay?

Section 290.080 does not name either as a required field.

Can the statement be electronic?

The cited statute does not answer that format question. It neither expressly authorizes electronic delivery nor states that the statement must be paper.

Statutes and sources

• Mo. Rev. Stat. § 290.080. Covered employers, monthly deduction statement, delivery placement, and misdemeanor fine. Official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
• Mo. Rev. Stat. § 290.520. Separate three-year minimum-wage payroll-record duty and director inspection. Official text (accessed July 13, 2026).