Your boss is paying you $10 an hour. You worked 15 hours last week. That means you made $150, right? Wrong! Your paycheck is for $129.01. You feel as if you’ve been robbed.

Who took your money? Your pay stub will solve the mystery.

Whether you receive a paycheck or use “direct deposit” of your check, you will still get a pay stub. It may have columns and a lot of abbreviations rarely looked at or understood. But your pay stub tells the tale of where your money went.

Pay stubs list your name, address, and employee number or other identifier, such as your Social Security number.

Upon closer inspection, here are some of the first categories you’ll discover on your stub:

REGULAR HOURS PER PERIOD - The number of hours you worked during this pay period at your usual rate. Sick leave and vacation hours are shown here, too.

OVERTIME HOURS PER PERIOD - The number of hours you’re paid at the overtime rate during this pay period.

YEAR TO DATE - The amount of money you’ve made so far this year. Usually there are amounts for “Gross Pay, Year to Date” and “Net Pay, Year to Date” (the amount after taxes and other deductions).

RATE - Your hourly rate, if paid by the hour.

GROSS INCOME OR PAY - The amount of money you signed up to get paid ($150.00 in this example).

NET INCOME OR PAY - The amount of your actual check, or what was left after deductions ($129.01 in this case).

Withholding taxes are federal, state and local taxes. Your employer withholds (takes money out of) your pay and sends it to the right taxing authority. The amounts depend on how you filled out your IRS form W-4 “Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate” when you were hired.

On your W-4, you mark off your tax filing status (single, married, etc.) and the number of allowances you want to take. An allowance represents how many people you claim to be supporting or other deductions.

A deduction is a tax exemption or credit you plan to take when you do your taxes.

Many people claim no deductions. This way they get less money every paycheck, but a bigger refund at tax time. Other people claim more deductions so they’ll get to keep more of their take-home pay, but they may have to pay more taxes at the end of the year.

The goal is to have withheld at least 90% of what you think you’ll owe for that year. If you pay more than that, you’ll get a refund at tax time, but that’s money you could have had to spend or invest during the year.

A closer look at your pay stub reveals a list of taxes that cause a drain on your pay:

FEDERAL INCOME TAX (FIT) - The amount withheld that goes to the federal government.

STATE INCOME TAX (SIT) – The amount withheld that goes to the state government, if your state has an income tax. If you live in one state and work in another, you may have to pay both states’ taxes.

STATE DISABILITY INSURANCE (SDI) – Some states withhold for disability benefits.

CITY INCOME TAX – Some people are taxed by the city in which they work or live.

Under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), you and your company each pay half of the taxes for Social Security and Medicare programs. These taxes equal 2.9 percent of your gross pay for Medicare, and 12.4 percent for Social Security. If you’re self-employed, you pay the entire tax. If you have a second job, that employer has to withhold for these taxes, too.

SOCIAL SECURITY TAX - This tax pays for the federal government’s retirement, disability and hospital programs. It’s often listed as OASDI (Old Age Survivor Disability Insurance). Keep in mind your employer is paying half of this and Medicare. Once you make over a certain amount you don’t pay any more Social Security taxes the rest of the year.

MEDICARE TAX – This goes to pay government medical programs for the elderly. You keep paying this one no matter how much you make.

Further investigation of the pay stub finds that there can be many other deductions besides taxes. Voluntary charitable donations, insurance and savings plans are just some of the “extras” that are taken out.

Here are some common deductions that you may find:

HEALTH INSURANCE – If your boss pays part of your health insurance, this amount is your part.

RETIREMENT – This deduction is for the retirement plan at work. Sometimes it’s for buying shares in the company, contributions to an IRA, or other plans.

U.S. BONDS – This deduction is for buying U.S. Savings Bonds, if you opted for that program.

LIFE INSURANCE – For those enrolled in a payroll deduction program for life insurance.

UNION DUES – Government employees, union members and laborers often have union dues.

CHARITY – Did you sign up for “automatic payroll deduction” to your local United Way or other charity?

GARNISHMENTS – Part of your salary gets taken out to pay anyone who has a legal judgment against you in court.

CHILD SUPPORT – Some people have this automatically deducted from their paycheck and transferred into their ex-spouse’s accounts.

Now you've uncovered the mystery of the lightweight paycheck.

For more info about FICA and other withholding, click here.

For more info on IRS form W-4, click here.

See what you learned.