How to Get Old Pay Stubs

Whether it's a mortgage application asking for “last 6 months of pay stubs” or a tax question from three years ago, old pay stubs are retrievable more often than people think.

Current job: check how far your portal goes back

Most payroll platforms (ADP, Workday, Paychex, Paylocity) keep 1-3 years of statements online — some keep everything. Log in, open the pay section and look for a year selector. Download PDFs of everything you might need now; access disappears when you change jobs.

Former job: request in writing

Payroll must keep records for years even after you leave — see our full guide on getting pay stubs from a previous employer. A written request to HR/payroll citing your state's payroll records law is the reliable route.

When the stub is truly gone

Reconstruct: your bank statements show every deposit, your W-2 shows annual totals and withholding, and an IRS Wage and Income Transcript (free) backs it all up. With those true figures you can generate a clean records copy in minutes — lenders mostly want consistent, verifiable numbers, and deposits + W-2 + a tidy statement usually satisfies them.