Paycheck Calculator

About the Paycheck Calculator

This calculator estimates your take-home pay by walking your gross annual salary through simplified progressive federal tax brackets, a state tax rate resolved from your zip code (editable if you know your actual rate), and the standard 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare withholdings. Enter your zip code, salary, pay frequency, and filing status to see a per-period breakdown of gross pay, taxes withheld, and net pay. Because actual withholding also depends on your W-4 elections, pre-tax deductions (401k, health insurance), and any local or county taxes, treat the result as a planning estimate rather than an exact paycheck amount. It's most useful for comparing how a raise, a change in pay frequency, or a move to a different state would affect your take-home pay before it happens on an actual pay stub.

For example, a single filer earning $60,000/year paid biweekly has a gross pay of $2,307.69 per period. Social Security takes 6.2% (about $143.08) and Medicare takes 1.45% (about $33.46) every period regardless of bracket. Federal tax is calculated by applying each progressive bracket only to the income within it — the first slice of income is taxed at the lowest rate, and only the portion above each threshold moves into the next bracket — before the annual result is divided across 26 pay periods. State tax then applies the rate resolved from the zip code (or entered manually) as a flat percentage of gross pay for the period.