Glossary
Payroll Clerk Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential payroll clerk terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key payroll clerk vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in payroll clerk training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- 941
- Quarterly payroll tax form.
- Deduction
- Amount withheld.
- Direct deposit
- Electronic pay.
- Exempt
- Not eligible for overtime.
- FICA
- Social Security and Medicare taxes.
- Garnishment
- Court-ordered withholding.
- Gross pay
- Pay before deductions.
- Net pay
- Take-home pay.
- Non-exempt
- Eligible for overtime.
- Off-cycle payroll
- Extra payroll run.
- Overtime
- Extra pay over 40 hours.
- Pay period
- Time covered by a paycheck.
- Timesheet
- Record of hours.
- W-2
- Annual wage form.
- W-4
- Employee withholding form.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Payroll Clerk practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Payroll Clerk training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.