Paycheck Calculator — Take Home Pay Calculator
Calculate your net take-home pay after federal tax, state tax, and FICA deductions. All calculations happen locally — nothing leaves your browser.
How do you calculate take-home pay? Take-home pay is gross pay minus federal income tax, state income tax and FICA. Federal tax is progressive: subtract the standard deduction from annual salary, then apply each bracket rate to the slice of income that falls inside it. FICA is flat — 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare. Divide the annual result by your number of pay periods to get the figure that lands in your account.
How to Use the Paycheck Calculator
- Enter your gross annual salary — Use the full contracted figure before any deduction — the number on the offer letter, not what arrives in your account. For hourly work, multiply the rate by weekly hours and then by 52.
- Pick your pay frequency — Biweekly means 26 paychecks a year, not 24, so two months carry a third cheque. Semimonthly is 24 evenly sized payments on fixed dates. The choice changes the size of each cheque but not the annual total.
- Choose a filing status — Single, married filing jointly, or head of household. This selects both the bracket table and the standard deduction, and it is the input with the largest effect on the federal figure.
- Set your state tax rate — The tool applies whatever percentage you enter as a flat rate on gross pay. Enter 0 for a state with no income tax; enter your top marginal rate as a rough proxy for a state with brackets of its own.
- Leave the FICA rates alone unless you know otherwise — 6.2% and 1.45% are the standard employee shares. They are editable so you can model an exemption or a different arrangement, but for most employees the defaults are the correct figures.
- Read the breakdown bar and the deduction rows — The bar shows net pay against each deduction as a share of gross. The rows underneath give the exact dollar figure for each line, and the header shows your effective rate — total deductions as a percentage of gross.
How the Calculation Works
Your gross salary is not what reaches your bank account. Four deductions come out before you see anything, and each is calculated differently — which is why a single "tax rate" never explains a payslip.
- Gross pay per period. Annual salary divided by the number of pay periods: 52 weekly, 26 biweekly, 24 semimonthly, 12 monthly.
- Federal income tax. The standard deduction for your filing status is subtracted from annual salary, and the remainder is taxed bracket by bracket. The annual total is then divided by the pay periods.
- State income tax. The rate you enter is applied as a flat percentage of gross pay, with no state-level deduction or bracket structure.
- FICA. Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45%, both applied to gross pay.
- Net pay. Gross minus all four. The Annual Net card is that figure multiplied back up by the number of periods.
The federal step is the one worth understanding, because it is where most intuitions go wrong. Brackets are marginal, not cliff-edged: moving into the 22% band does not tax your whole salary at 22%, it taxes only the dollars above that threshold. On $75,000 as a single filer, the taxable amount after the standard deduction is $60,400, and the tax is built in three slices:
$11,600 × 10% + $35,550 × 12% + $13,250 × 22% = $1,160 + $4,266 + $2,915 = $8,341That is $8,341 on $75,000 — an average federal rate of about 11.1%, even though the top bracket touched is 22%. The gap between those two numbers is the single most useful thing this page shows, and it is why a raise never costs you money.
The effective tax rate in the header is broader than the federal average: it is every deduction, including state and FICA, divided by gross pay. On the $75,000 biweekly example with a 5% state rate, that comes to roughly 23.8%.
What this calculator leaves out
- Pre-tax deductions. 401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums, HSA and FSA amounts all reduce taxable income before federal tax is calculated. None of them are modelled, so a real paycheck with a 401(k) contribution shows less federal tax than this estimate.
- The Social Security wage base. The 6.2% applies only up to an annual earnings limit that is revised each year — $168,600 for 2024. This tool applies the percentage to all earnings, so above that ceiling it overstates Social Security and therefore understates net pay.
- Additional Medicare Tax. An extra 0.9% applies to earnings above a threshold that depends on filing status. It is not applied here.
- W-4 details. Real withholding follows the W-4 you filed — extra withholding, dependent credits, multiple jobs. The IRS percentage-method tables also differ slightly from an annual bracket calculation divided by pay periods.
- State complexity. Local and city income tax, state standard deductions, state brackets, disability insurance and paid family leave contributions are all outside the single flat percentage.
This is an informational estimate, not tax advice or a payroll calculation. The bracket and standard deduction figures built into the tool are the 2024 values and are not updated automatically. Check your own payslip and the current IRS tables, and speak to a tax professional or a payroll administrator for anything that affects a filing or a financial decision.
Federal Tax Brackets and Standard Deductions (2024)
These are the figures the calculator applies. Each row's rate applies only to income inside that band, after the standard deduction has been subtracted.
| Rate | Single | Married filing jointly | Head of household |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 – $11,600 | $0 – $23,200 | $0 – $16,550 |
| 12% | $11,601 – $47,150 | $23,201 – $94,300 | $16,551 – $63,100 |
| 22% | $47,151 – $100,525 | $94,301 – $201,050 | $63,101 – $100,500 |
| 24% | $100,526 – $191,950 | $201,051 – $383,900 | $100,501 – $191,950 |
| 32% | $191,951 – $243,725 | $383,901 – $487,450 | $191,951 – $243,700 |
| 35% | $243,726 – $609,350 | $487,451 – $731,200 | $243,701 – $609,350 |
| 37% | Over $609,350 | Over $731,200 | Over $609,350 |
| Standard deduction | $14,600 | $29,200 | $21,900 |
Bracket thresholds and the standard deduction are adjusted for inflation each year, so a later year's figures will be slightly wider. The structure does not change, and neither does the conclusion you draw from it — but if you are reconciling against a current payslip to the dollar, use the tables for the year you are actually in.
Pay Frequency and Why the Cheque Size Changes
Frequency does not change what you earn in a year, only how it is sliced. The distinction that catches people out is biweekly versus semimonthly: they sound alike and produce different cheques.
| Frequency | Pay periods per year | Gross per period on $75,000 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 | $1,442.31 | Same day every week; four months contain five paydays |
| Biweekly | 26 | $2,884.62 | Every second week, so two months a year carry three paycheques |
| Semimonthly | 24 | $3,125.00 | Twice a month on fixed dates; every cheque is the same size |
| Monthly | 12 | $6,250.00 | One payment, so the largest single cheque and the longest gap |
If you budget monthly on a biweekly schedule, the safe approach is to build the budget on two paycheques a month and treat the two extra cheques each year as unallocated. Budgeting on 26 ÷ 12 = 2.17 cheques a month leaves you short ten months of the year and flush twice, which is a reliable way to end up using credit in month one.
Worked examples
Salaried, $75,000, biweekly, single, 5% state rate. Gross per cheque $2,884.62. Federal $8,341 a year, or $320.81 per cheque. State $144.23. Social Security $178.85. Medicare $41.83. Deductions total $685.72, leaving $2,198.90 take-home — an effective rate of 23.8%.
Hourly, $25/hour, 40 hours a week, biweekly, single, 5% state rate. Annual gross $52,000, or $2,000 per cheque. Federal $4,256 a year, or $163.69 per cheque. State $100. Social Security $124. Medicare $29. Deductions total $416.69, leaving $1,583.31 take-home — an effective rate of 20.8%.
The second earner makes 69% of the first's salary but keeps 72% of the first's take-home, because the progressive federal brackets take a smaller share at the lower income. That relationship is worth remembering when comparing job offers: the gap in net pay is always narrower than the gap in gross.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a planning estimate. The federal calculation is exact for the 2024 brackets and standard deduction it uses, but real withholding follows your W-4, and the tool does not model pre-tax deductions such as 401(k) contributions or health premiums, the Social Security wage base cap, Additional Medicare Tax, or state deductions and brackets. Expect it to land within a reasonable range of a real payslip, not on it to the cent.
FICA is the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, which funds Social Security and Medicare. Employees pay 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare, and the employer matches both — so the total contribution on your earnings is 15.3%, half of which never appears on your payslip. Self-employed people pay both halves themselves as self-employment tax.
No, and it matters for high earners. Social Security tax applies only up to an annual earnings ceiling — $168,600 for 2024, revised each year — after which the 6.2% stops. This tool applies the rate to all earnings, so above that ceiling it overstates the deduction and understates your take-home pay. Medicare has no ceiling, so that line is unaffected.
Usually because of pre-tax deductions. A 401(k) contribution, health insurance premium, HSA or FSA amount comes out before federal tax is calculated, which lowers both the taxable income and the tax. Extra withholding you elected on your W-4, dependent credits, local or city income tax, and state disability or paid family leave contributions all shift the figure too.
No. Everything is calculated in JavaScript in your browser and no request carries your figures. One caveat worth knowing: your salary, filing status, state rate and pay frequency are written into the page address as query parameters so a scenario can be bookmarked. That means the URL in your address bar contains your salary — clear it before sharing a link or a screenshot of the browser bar.
No. Brackets are marginal, so a higher rate applies only to the dollars above the threshold, never to your whole income. Earning one dollar more than a bracket boundary means that single dollar is taxed at the higher rate. A raise always increases net pay — the amount you keep from it simply falls as income rises, from 90 cents on the first dollars to 63 cents in the top band.
The tool takes one flat percentage, so pick the rate that best represents your situation. Your top marginal state rate is the conservative choice and will slightly overstate the deduction; your state's published effective rate for your income level is closer to reality. For a state with no income tax, enter 0. Local or city taxes can be folded into the same field by adding them together.
Use base salary only. Bonuses, equity, employer 401(k) matching and benefits are taxed differently or not at all as regular wages, and mixing them in produces a per-paycheque figure that never appears on a payslip. Run a bonus as its own separate calculation if you want to see what a one-off payment nets.
Use Cases
Comparing Two Job Offers
A $92,000 role in a 6% state against $88,000 in a state with no income tax. Run both and the gross gap of $4,000 shrinks to something much smaller — sometimes to nothing — once state tax is in the picture.
Building a Budget on a Real Number
Take the per-paycheque figure into a monthly budget rather than dividing gross salary by twelve. Budgeting from gross is the most common reason a plan that looks balanced on paper runs short every month.
Pricing a Relocation
Keep the salary fixed and change only the state rate to isolate what the move costs or saves in tax, before weighing it against the difference in rent and cost of living.
Valuing a Raise Before You Ask
Enter your current salary and the number you intend to negotiate for. The difference in net pay per cheque is the figure that actually changes your life, and it is always smaller than the headline increase.
Setting an Hourly Rate for Contract Work
Convert a target take-home figure back to a gross salary by adjusting the input until the net matches, then divide by 2,080 hours. Remember a contractor also owes the employer half of FICA, so add that on top.
Explaining a First Payslip
Show someone starting their first job why the cheque is smaller than the salary they were quoted, with each deduction named and sized. The breakdown bar makes the split visible in a way a payslip rarely does.