Paycheck Calculator – US Salary Calculator (Take-Home Pay)
Free US paycheck calculator: enter your gross annual salary and filing status to instantly estimate federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare tax, plus a simplified state tax comparison.
What is a US paycheck calculator?
This calculator estimates your take-home (net) pay from your gross annual US salary by applying federal income tax, Social Security tax, and Medicare tax for tax year 2026, correctly modeling the standard deduction and 7-bracket rate schedule for your filing status.
Many "paycheck calculator" and "salary calculator" tools exist, but this one also explains, in plain language, how the Social Security wage base cap, the Additional Medicare Tax for high earners, and the presence or absence of state income tax each affect your final take-home pay.
How the calculation works
- Enter your gross salary Type your gross annual salary in dollars, or use the slider.
- Select your filing status Choose Single, Married Filing Jointly, or Head of Household — this changes your standard deduction and tax bracket widths.
- Choose your state tax scenario Select "no state income tax" if you live in a no-tax state, or "California" if you live in a progressive-tax state.
- Read the result Your federal income tax, Social Security tax, Medicare tax, state tax and net pay appear instantly, along with the employer cost.
Tips for getting more out of it
- Social Security tax withholding stops once your year-to-date wages exceed the $184,500 wage base for 2026, so your effective Social Security tax rate falls as your income rises.
- The Additional Medicare Tax withholding threshold your employer applies (over $200,000 for any single job) can differ from the threshold that actually applies on your tax return for Married Filing Jointly ($250,000 combined), which can lead to over-withholding for dual-income couples.
- This calculator only supports two simplified state tax scenarios — no state income tax, or California. Many other states (New York, Illinois, and others) have their own distinct rates, so consult a tax professional for an accurate state-specific figure.
- 401(k) and similar pre-tax retirement contributions reduce your federal taxable income, but not your Social Security or Medicare wage base, so the tax savings differ from what this simplified calculator shows.
- Your employer pays a matching amount of Social Security and Medicare tax on your behalf — this is not deducted from your paycheck, but it is a real additional cost to your employer.
Common use cases
Comparing job offers
Quickly compare the take-home pay of job offers with the same gross salary but different states — no-tax states versus progressive-tax states like California.
Negotiating a contractor rate
When moving from a W-2 job to independent contracting, knowing how much employer-paid FICA you were previously receiving helps you set a fair contract rate.
Annual household budgeting
Build a rent and living-expense budget based on your actual net pay after federal tax and FICA withholding, not your gross salary.
Estimating a raise or bonus
Re-enter your new salary after a raise to see exactly how much extra take-home pay you get once you cross into a higher tax bracket.
Paycheck terms explained
- Standard deduction
- A flat amount you can subtract from your taxable income without itemizing expenses, based on filing status: $16,100 for Single, $32,200 for Married Filing Jointly, and $24,150 for Head of Household in 2026.
- Social Security tax
- A 6.2% payroll tax that funds future retirement benefits. It only applies up to the annual wage base ($184,500 in 2026) — earnings above that are not taxed for Social Security.
- Medicare tax
- A 1.45% payroll tax that funds healthcare for the elderly and disabled. Unlike Social Security tax, it has no wage cap and applies to all earnings.
- Additional Medicare Tax
- An extra 0.9% tax on high earners, starting at $200,000 for Single/Head of Household filers or $250,000 for Married Filing Jointly. There is no employer-paid share.
- FICA
- Short for Federal Insurance Contributions Act — the combined term for Social Security tax and Medicare tax, usually shown together as one line item on your paystub.
- Filing status
- The category used to calculate your federal income tax — Single, Married Filing Jointly, Head of Household, and others — each with different standard deductions and bracket widths.
Frequently asked questions
Side Note — why are federal income tax and FICA withheld separately in the US?
Look closely at a US paystub and you'll notice federal income tax is withheld as one line item, while Social Security and Medicare tax are grouped together under "FICA." This isn't an accident of payroll software design — Social Security and Medicare are structured as contributory insurance programs, where the taxes you pay in are meant to earn you future benefits, and they operate under an entirely different law (the Federal Insurance Contributions Act) than the income tax that funds general government spending.
The $184,500 wage base cap on Social Security tax exists because the program's benefit formula is itself capped — your eventual retirement benefit is calculated only on wages up to a similar limit, so the tax collection mirrors that design. Medicare tax, by contrast, has had no wage cap since a 1993 law change shifted the program toward collecting more revenue from higher earners regardless of how much they ultimately draw in benefits.
The Additional Medicare Tax is a relatively recent addition, created in 2013 to help fund the Affordable Care Act, and it's unusual in that employers pay no matching share of it at all — only the employee is charged. The threshold for Married Filing Jointly couples was deliberately set at $250,000 rather than simply doubling the single threshold to $400,000, a choice widely understood to prioritize revenue collection over parity with dual-income households.