US Paycheck Calculator

This US paycheck calculator shows the complete path from gross pay to take-home pay: federal income tax, state tax, Social Security, Medicare, and every deduction, itemized per paycheck and per year. Enter your salary or hourly rate, pay frequency, filing status, and state, and the take-home pay calculator displays your net pay and exactly where every withheld dollar went. Pre-tax contributions like 401k and health premiums are handled in the correct order, since they reduce taxable income before withholding is applied.

Example: A $75,000 salary, single filer in Texas paid biweekly with a 5% 401k contribution takes home roughly $2,150 per paycheck after federal tax and FICA, with no state income tax.

Take-home pay follows a fixed sequence: start with gross pay, subtract pre-tax deductions (401k, HSA, health insurance premiums), apply federal withholding on the reduced amount using current brackets, subtract FICA (6.2% Social Security up to the annual wage cap plus 1.45% Medicare), subtract state income tax where applicable, then subtract any post-tax deductions. The order matters: pre-tax deductions shrink the base that federal and state tax apply to, which is why they cost less in net pay than their face value.

Hourly mode converts rate and hours into gross pay, applies the overtime multiplier (1.5x by default) to hours above 40, and runs the same full withholding sequence. Overtime is withheld at the same rates as regular pay despite the persistent myth that it is taxed higher; a heavy-overtime paycheck may be withheld at a higher rate temporarily because withholding tables annualize each check, but the actual tax reconciles at filing.

Example: $25 per hour with 8 overtime hours in a week grosses $1,300 (40 × $25 + 8 × $37.50), not $1,200, and the calculator shows the net difference the overtime actually delivers.

Bonuses are supplemental wages, and employers commonly withhold a flat supplemental rate rather than your normal bracket rate, which is why the bonus check looks smaller than expected. The withholding is not the final tax: if the flat rate over-withheld relative to your actual bracket, the difference comes back at filing. Bonus mode shows the after-tax bonus at the supplemental rate and your estimated true rate side by side.

A salary difference on paper is not the take-home difference in practice, especially across state lines. Comparison mode runs two offers through the full withholding sequence, each with its own state, and shows the real monthly take-home gap. A $10,000 raise moving from Texas to California can net a fraction of its face value, while the reverse move amplifies it, and pricing that before accepting is exactly what this mode is for.

Your marginal bracket is the rate on your last dollar earned; your effective rate is total tax divided by total income, and it is always lower. Moving into a higher bracket only taxes the dollars above the threshold at the new rate, so a raise never reduces take-home pay. The calculator displays both rates with your numbers, which settles the bracket myth more effectively than any explanation.