US paycheck calculator 2026 — take-home pay after federal, FICA and state tax

How to use the US paycheck calculator

1. Choose Pay type and enter your Annual salary, or your Hourly wage and Hours per week.
2. Pick your Pay frequency (weekly, every two weeks, twice a month or monthly) and your Filing status from Form W-4.
3. Choose your State. For New York, tick I live in New York City if it applies.
4. Enter your 401(k) / 403(b) pre-tax contribution as a percentage, and your age at the end of 2026 so the right IRS limit is used.
5. Add any Pre-tax health, dental, vision or FSA amount per paycheck, your number of Dependents, and any Form W-4 Step 3 credits.
6. Read your take-home pay per paycheck and per year, the line-by-line breakdown and the chart of where your pay goes.

What it does and when to use it

This calculator turns a gross salary or hourly wage into the amount that reaches your bank account in 2026. It takes off federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax. Where a state charges its own payroll deductions, it takes those off too: California’s State Disability Insurance, New York’s Paid Family Leave and disability contributions, and Pennsylvania’s unemployment contribution. It also handles pre-tax 401(k) or 403(b) contributions and Section 125 health deductions, extra withholding and after-tax deductions.

Use it to compare job offers in different states, to check a new paycheck, or to see what a raise is worth after tax. It also shows how much a higher 401(k) percentage really costs you each payday. Because the result is worked out from the published tables rather than a flat percentage, the effect of the standard deduction, the tax bands and the Social Security wage base shows up correctly.

How it works

The calculator works on the whole year and then divides by the number of paychecks: 52, 26, 24 or 12.

Pre-tax deductions. Your 401(k) percentage is applied to gross pay and capped at the 2026 limit for your age. That is $24,500, or $32,500 at 50 or older, or $35,750 at ages 60 to 63. Section 125 health deductions are multiplied by the number of paychecks.

Federal income tax. Taxable income = gross pay − 401(k) − Section 125 − standard deduction. The 2026 standard deduction is $16,100 for single and married filing separately, $32,200 for married filing jointly and $24,150 for head of household. The tax is then built band by band from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. For a single filer that is 10% up to $12,400, 12% to $50,400, 22% to $105,700, 24% to $201,775, 32% to $256,225, 35% to $640,600 and 37% above. Your Form W-4 Step 3 credits are subtracted, and the result never goes below zero. IRS Publication 15-T’s standard withholding tables give the same yearly figure for a 2020 or later W-4 with no other entries.

Social Security and Medicare. Social Security = 6.2% × the lower of your wages and $184,500. Medicare = 1.45% × all wages. Additional Medicare Tax = 0.9% × wages above $200,000. Section 125 deductions come off first; 401(k) contributions do not.

State income tax. Each state uses its own rules:

Take-home pay = gross − pre-tax deductions − all taxes − extra withholding − after-tax deductions.

Worked examples

These come straight from the calculator.

$60,000 in Texas, single, paid every two weeks, no 401(k). Federal income tax is $5,020 a year and Social Security plus Medicare is $4,590. Texas has no income tax, so take-home pay is $50,390 a year, or $1,938.08 per paycheck.

The same $60,000 in California with 5% to a 401(k). The $3,000 contribution lowers federal tax to $4,660. California tax on $51,294 of taxable income is $1,612.53, less the $153 personal credit, so $1,459.53. SDI adds $780. Take-home pay is $45,510.47 a year, or $1,750.40 per paycheck.

$85,000 in New York City, paid twice a month, 6% 401(k), $120 health per paycheck. The calculator takes off $338.10 federal tax and $261.76 for Social Security and Medicare. New York State tax is $148.44 and New York City tax $106.26. Paid Family Leave is $15.30 and disability $1.30. That leaves $2,338.01 per paycheck, or $56,112.32 a year.

$120,000 married filing jointly in Illinois, twice a month, 6% 401(k), two dependents. Four exemptions of $2,925 bring Illinois taxable income to $101,100. At 4.95% that is $208.52 per paycheck. Take-home pay is $3,726.65 per paycheck.

Limits and tips

• It is an estimate of 2026 tax, not a payslip. It assumes the standard deduction, no other income and steady pay all year. Itemised deductions, investment income, a second job or a spouse’s wages all change the real figure. Use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator for a full W-4 check.
• New 2026 deductions are not included. The tips, overtime and senior deductions created by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act are claimed on your tax return. Your W-4 can reflect them, but they are not modelled here.
• California uses the 2025 schedules. The Franchise Tax Board publishes 2026 indexed brackets late in the year. Until then, the calculator uses the 2025 schedules, and so do the state’s 2026 withholding tables. California does not allow the HSA deduction, so do not enter HSA money as a Section 125 deduction for California.
• Ohio’s 2026 schedule is provisional. The $332 + 2.75% schedule comes from the state’s 2025 budget law. The Ohio tax department’s rate page has not yet been updated for 2026.
• Local taxes need your input. Enter your city, county or school district rate in the local tax field. Only New York City is built in.
• Other states are not included. Pick “Another state” and, if your state has a flat rate, enter it in the override field.
• Married couples with two jobs should treat the result as a guide only. Form W-4 Step 2 changes withholding, and the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax is settled on the joint return.

Related tools

To see what your 401(k) contributions could grow to, including your employer’s match, use the 401(k) calculator. The retirement savings calculator shows whether your saving rate is enough to retire on. If you are paid by the hour, the hourly to annual calculator converts your rate, and the overtime pay calculator adds overtime hours. For a state-by-state table at five salaries, see the US paycheck guide for 2026.