Paycheck Calculator

How to use this paycheck calculator

Enter your annual salary or hourly rate, pick your filing status and state, and add any pre-tax deductions like 401(k) or health insurance. Your real take-home pay updates instantly. Click "Compare with another offer" to add a second column and see two job offers side-by-side. Useful for evaluating raises, comparing offers across different states, or seeing how a 401(k) bump affects your paycheck.

What's taken out of your paycheck

Federal income tax uses progressive brackets. For 2025, that ranges from 10% to 37% based on taxable income (after standard deduction or itemized deductions). FICA is Social Security (6.2% up to $176,100 of wages in 2025) plus Medicare (1.45%, with an additional 0.9% on wages over $200,000). Together these are 7.65% for most earners. State income tax varies widely. 9 states have no state income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming). Other states range from a flat 3% to brackets that reach 13.3%. Pre-tax deductions like 401(k), HSA, and health insurance reduce taxable income, lowering federal and state tax withheld.

Why your take-home is lower than you expected

Most people are surprised at the gap between gross salary and take-home pay. On an $80,000 single salary in a no-tax state, take-home is around $63,000 (about 79% of gross). In a high-tax state like California, that drops to roughly $58,500. This is why salary comparisons across states can be misleading. A $90K job in Texas often nets more than a $100K job in California after taxes.

Comparing two job offers

The compare feature is built for the moment when you're weighing a raise, considering a relocation, or choosing between two offers. Plug in both, name them ("Current job" and "New offer" or "NYC" and "Austin"), and see the difference in take-home immediately. The summary at the top tells you which offer wins and by how much per year. Useful when comparing salaries across states with very different tax rates, or evaluating whether a higher-titled role at a smaller company actually pays more after factoring in benefits and 401(k) match.

FAQ

How accurate is this? Federal tax and FICA calculations use the actual IRS formulas and are accurate within rounding. State tax is calculated using a simplified flat-rate-per-state estimate, not the full state bracket structure. For a single state with progressive brackets, the calculator might be off by a few hundred dollars per year. Always confirm with your actual pay stub or a tax professional before making big financial decisions.

Why don't you cover local taxes? Some cities (NYC, Philadelphia, Yonkers, several Ohio and Pennsylvania municipalities) have local income taxes. Modeling all of those accurately would require zip-code-level data. If you live in a city with local tax, mentally subtract another 1-4% from your take-home estimate.

Does this work for self-employed income (1099)? No. 1099 income has different tax math (no employer-matched FICA, plus self-employment tax). This calculator assumes you're a W-2 employee.

Does this calculator save my information? No. Everything happens in your browser. We never send, store, or share your salary or any other inputs. Refreshing the page resets all values.

What about Roth 401(k) contributions? Roth contributions are taxed before going in, so they don't reduce your current taxable income (only traditional 401(k) does that). For Roth contributions, just enter $0 in the 401(k) field here, since this calculator is showing current take-home, not retirement-planning math.