New Hampshire: Pay Stub Requirements

Requirements one by one

The required statement covers deductions, not the full payroll calculation

RSA § 275:49(IV) requires an employer to furnish each employee a “statement
of deductions made” for every pay period in which deductions occur. The
Department of Labor describes it as a written statement of all deductions and
gives taxes, insurance premiums, charity contributions, and other legitimate
gross-wage deductions as examples.

The provision does not impose a statement duty for a pay period with no
deductions. It also lists no gross-wage, hours, rate, overtime, salary,
commission, piece-unit, net-pay, pay-period-date, employer-identity,
employee-identity, tip, leave-balance, or contribution field.

Some requested deductions need monthly itemization

RSA § 275:48(I)(d) creates a limited additional accounting rule for the
employee-requested deductions listed in that subparagraph. For those
deductions, the employer must provide a written itemized accounting at least
once per month. That monthly rule should not be enlarged into a universal
earnings-statement field list.

Electronic format is not addressed

The Department of Labor FAQ calls for a written deduction statement, but the
cited law and FAQ do not say whether electronic delivery satisfies that
requirement. They state no employee-consent, paper-copy, opt-out, printing,
saving, or continuing-access procedure.

Payroll retention is an enforcement record, not a statement archive right

RSA § 275:49(VI) requires wage and hour records to be preserved for three
years and made reportable to the commissioner for enforcement. It does not
expressly say that copies of every deduction statement must be retained or
give a current or former employee a statement-inspection or copy procedure.

Warning and cure ordinarily come before the civil penalty

RSA § 275:51(I) authorizes the labor commissioner to investigate violations
on an employee complaint and institute penalty actions. Under RSA
§ 273:11-a(I)-(III), the commissioner may impose a civil penalty up to $2,500,
but ordinarily must first issue one written warning and allow 30 days to cure.
The listed no-warning exceptions do not identify a deduction-statement
violation by itself.

RSA § 275:52 separately makes a willful failure to comply with another chapter
requirement a misdemeanor. The private action in RSA § 275:53(I) is framed as
an action to recover unpaid wages or liquidated damages, so it should not be
presented as an automatic damages award for a statement-only defect.

What trips people up

New Hampshire is not a “no statement” state, but it is also not a general
full-stub state. The basic mandate turns on whether a deduction was made and
reaches the deduction statement, not every field a payroll system commonly
prints.

The monthly itemization rule is narrower still. It applies to the requested
deductions listed in § 275:48(I)(d), while § 275:49(IV) supplies the general
affected-pay-period statement rule.

The three-year record duty does not, by its own words, create an employee
archive right or require retention of a duplicate of each statement.

Common questions

Must the employer furnish a statement if no deduction was made?

Section 275:49(IV) applies “for each pay period such deductions are made.” It
does not state a deduction-statement duty for a pay period with no deductions.

Must the statement show gross or net pay?

The cited statement provision requires deductions made. It does not list gross
pay or net pay as employee-facing fields.

May the statement be delivered through an online portal?

The cited law and FAQ do not answer that question. They require a written
deduction statement but state no electronic-consent, access, printing, saving,
or paper-option mechanics.

Statutes and sources

• N.H. Rev. Stat. § 275:42(I). Employer definition and domestic-labor and
  small-farm exclusions. Official text
  (accessed July 14, 2026).
• N.H. Rev. Stat. §§ 275:48(I)(d) and 275:49(IV), (VI). Monthly itemized
  accounting for limited requested deductions, affected-pay-period deduction
  statements, and three-year enforcement records. Requested deductions
  and statements and records
  (accessed July 14, 2026).
• N.H. Rev. Stat. §§ 275:51(I), 275:52, and 275:53(I). Commissioner
  investigation and penalty actions, willful-failure misdemeanor, and the
  unpaid-wage private action. Enforcement,
  misdemeanor, and
  private action
  (accessed July 14, 2026).
• N.H. Rev. Stat. § 273:11-a(I)-(III). Civil penalty, ordinary warning and
  cure, and no-warning exceptions. Official text
  (accessed July 14, 2026).
• New Hampshire Department of Labor, Wages and Work Hours FAQs. Current
  agency explanation of the written deduction statement. Official FAQ
  (accessed July 14, 2026).