How WAGETru Works

Real paychecks. Real data. No estimates. No guessing.

What makes WAGETru different

Most salary websites show you estimated ranges based on surveys or job postings. WAGETru shows you what workers actually take home — verified from real paychecks and union contracts.

Other sitesWAGETru
"Estimated salary: $60K-$90K"Actual paycheck: $2,605 net per 2 weeks
Gross pay onlyGross AND net (after all taxes & deductions)
No breakdownFederal tax, state tax, SS, Medicare, insurance, 401k, union dues
Anonymous "reports"Verified paystub submissions + official union contracts

Our data sources

1. Union wage contracts

We transcribe official union wage scales from SEIU and other labor unions covering California hospitals. These are contractual rates — not estimates. Currently covering 17 hospitals with 2245+ positions.

2. Anonymous paystub submissions

Real workers upload their paychecks. We extract the pay data, remove all personally identifiable information, and delete the original document within 24 hours.

How paystub submission works

Step 1: Worker uploads their paystub (with personal info removed)

Step 2: We extract: gross pay, taxes, deductions, employer, job title, experience

Step 3: We verify the numbers add up correctly

Step 4: Data is anonymized and added to the database

Step 5: Original document is permanently deleted within 24 hours

Step 6: Anonymous salary data appears on WAGETru for others to see

What we show

What we NEVER show

How taxes are calculated

All tax calculations use 2024 IRS federal brackets and California Franchise Tax Board marginal rates. We apply standard deductions based on filing status. These are estimates — your actual taxes may vary based on additional deductions, credits, or circumstances.

Submit your paycheck

Help other workers know what jobs really pay. Your submission is 100% anonymous — we never store personal information and originals are deleted within 24 hours.

Submit your paystub →

See what real workers take home

WAGETru shows verified paychecks — not estimates. Browse wages · Union lookup

Why WAGETru Is Different From Other Salary Sites

Most salary websites show estimates based on surveys, job postings, or self-reported data that has never been verified. The numbers you see on those sites represent what employers say they pay — not what workers actually take home after taxes, insurance, and retirement deductions.

WAGETru takes a fundamentally different approach. Every data point on this site comes from one of two verified sources:

The result: instead of seeing that a Registered Nurse in California "typically earns $65,000-$95,000," you see that a specific nurse at a specific hospital takes home $2,418 every two weeks after $1,428 in taxes and deductions. That level of detail helps workers make real decisions about job offers, negotiations, and career moves.

Our Data Processing Pipeline

  1. Submission — Worker uploads paystub photo/PDF with all personal information blacked out
  2. AI Extraction — GPT-4 Vision reads the paystub and extracts all pay data fields
  3. Validation — Cross-checks that gross minus deductions equals net (catches errors)
  4. PII Screening — Flags any visible personal info for rejection
  5. Publication — Anonymized data goes live within minutes if confidence is high
  6. Deletion — Original paystub image is permanently deleted within 24 hours

Data Coverage

WAGETru currently covers 20 employers across California and Vermont, with over 2,300 verified wage entries from union contracts. We are actively expanding coverage through paystub submissions from workers in all 50 states and all industries. Every submission helps build a more complete picture of what American workers actually take home.