4. Identify Social Security deductions

Your Social Security withholding may be listed on your stub as FICA, which stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. This is the act that allows Social Security deductions to be taken from your paycheck.

Actually, there are two parts of FICA, and they may be listed separately:

• OASDI: This is short for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, the program that pays you money after you retire.
• Med or Medi: These abbreviations stand for Medicare, which provides health insurance after you retire.

The current tax rates are 4.2% of gross pay for OASDI and 1.45% for Medicare. Using these rates, the deductions for a weekly gross pay of $615.38 would be:
OASDI: $615.38 × .042 = $25.85
Medicare: $615.38 × .0145 = $8.92