Pay Stub Requirements in Virginia
At a glance
| Governing law and coverage | Va. Code § 40.1-29(A), (D). Private employers using the FLSA employer definition; public bodies generally excluded by § 40.1-2.1. Agriculture/agribusiness/forestry has a request-only narrower rule |
|---|---|
| Must provide a statement and when | Each regular pay date: paystub or online accounting. Agriculture/agribusiness/forestry: written statement on employee request for any pay period (§ 40.1-29(D)) |
| Pay period, employer, and employee identification | Employer name and address. No pay-period beginning/ending dates, payday, employee name/address, employee number, or SSN field stated (§ 40.1-29(D)) |
| Gross earnings, hours, rates, and pay basis | Rate and gross wages; hours if hourly-paid or salaried below the federal overtime-exemption salary level; enough information to determine gross/net calculation. Agricultural request statement: gross wages only (§ 40.1-29(D)) |
| Deductions, net pay, allowances, and other required items | Amount and purpose of deductions; enough information to determine how net pay was calculated. No express allowance, tip, leave-balance, or employer-contribution field (§ 40.1-29(D)) |
| Electronic delivery, consent, printing, and storage | Online accounting expressly allowed; no advance consent, paper opt-out, printing, downloading, saving, or portal-duration condition stated (§ 40.1-29(D)) |
| Employee copy access and employer retention | Employer keeps paystubs or online accounting at least 3 years after work performed; no current/former employee historical-copy procedure, response deadline, or copy fee stated (§ 40.1-29(D)) |
| Enforcement, damages, penalties, and deadlines | Labor Commissioner enforces Title 40.1 (§ 40.1-6(2)); § 40.1-29's stated wage damages and $1,000 civil penalty require unpaid wages, so no statement-only statutory damages or per-stub penalty is stated |
Requirements one by one
Most private employers provide the statement each payday
Va. Code § 40.1-29(D) requires a written statement “by a paystub or online accounting” on each regular pay date. The statute uses the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's employer definition. Virginia's general public-body exclusion means Title 40.1 does not ordinarily apply to the Commonwealth, its agencies, political subdivisions, or public bodies unless coverage is specifically extended.
The statement must let the employee follow the calculation
The listed fields are the employer's name and address, the rate of pay, gross wages, and the amount and purpose of deductions. Hours also appear when the employee is hourly-paid or salaried below the federal salary level used for the executive, administrative, and professional overtime exemption.
The statute adds a functional requirement: the paystub or online accounting must contain enough information for the employee to determine how gross and net pay were calculated. It does not separately name pay-period dates, payday, employee identifiers, leave balances, or employer contributions.
Agricultural employment uses a request-only rule
Agricultural employment, including agribusiness and forestry, is removed from the automatic every-payday statement. On an employee's request, that employer must instead furnish a written statement of gross wages for any pay period and the amount and purpose of deductions.
The agricultural request statement does not carry forward the ordinary rule's express employer-address, rate, hours, or gross/net-calculation language.
Online records are retained for three years
An online accounting is an express statutory delivery method. Section 40.1-29(D) states no advance consent, paper opt-out, printing, downloading, saving, or portal-duration condition.
The employer must retain the paystubs or online accounting for at least three years after the work was performed. The same sentence does not create a current- or former-employee procedure to demand historical copies.
The Commissioner enforces the title, but wage remedies need unpaid wages
Va. Code § 40.1-6(2) directs the Labor Commissioner to enforce Title 40.1 and cause violations to be prosecuted. The specified monetary remedies later in § 40.1-29 are drafted around an employer's failure to pay wages: § 40.1-29(H) provides wages, liquidated damages, and interest, while § 40.1-29(I) supplies the up-to-$1,000 civil penalty for a knowing failure to pay. The cited text states no separate per-stub damages or fine for a statement-only violation where the wages were fully paid.
What trips people up
“Salaried” does not by itself remove the hours field. A salaried employee below the federal exemption salary level is expressly within the hours requirement.
The statute requires enough information to determine the net-pay calculation; it does not merely require a single unexplained deduction total. Each deduction's amount and purpose are named fields.
Agricultural employment is not a complete no-statement category. The timing and content change: the employee must request the narrower statement.
Common questions
May Virginia use an employee portal instead of paper?
Yes. The statute expressly permits “online accounting” and states no paper opt-out. Separate payroll-system facts may still affect whether the employee can actually receive the required information.
Must the stub show the employee's name?
Section 40.1-29(D) expressly names the employer's name and address but states no employee-name or employee-number field.
How long must the employer retain the statement?
At least three years following the date the work was performed.
Statutes and sources
- Va. Code § 40.1-29(A), (D). Coverage, timing, fields, online accounting, agricultural requests, and three-year retention. Official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
- Va. Code § 40.1-2.1. General exclusion of Commonwealth and public bodies. Official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
- Va. Code §§ 40.1-6(2), 40.1-29(H)-(K). Commissioner enforcement and the unpaid-wage limits on specified remedies. Official Commissioner-powers text and official wage-payment text (accessed July 13, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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