Take-Home Pay Calculator

Every paystub follows the same structure. At the top is your gross pay — the headline salary divided by the number of paychecks per year. Then comes a list of deductions, each in one of three buckets: pre-tax deductions that reduce your taxable income, taxes themselves, and post-tax deductions. What's left at the bottom is your net pay, also called take-home pay — the actual money that hits your bank account.

Pre-tax deductions come out first because they reduce the amount of income subject to tax. The most common are 401(k) or 403(b) contributions (employer-sponsored retirement plans), HSA and FSA contributions (Section 125 cafeteria plans for healthcare expenses), and your share of employer health-insurance premiums. The order matters: a $100 pre-tax deduction costs about $78 of take-home if you're in the 22% federal bracket, because the $22 you'd otherwise owe in tax stays in your pocket.

Then come the taxes. Federal income tax is calculated on your taxable income using the bracket schedule. Your employer's payroll system applies the brackets per paycheck — so a higher gross paycheck pushes you into higher temporary brackets even if your annual total is in a lower one. That's why a bonus paycheck often has eye-watering withholding; the system extrapolates as if you'd earn that amount every paycheck. The actual annual tax is reconciled at year-end.

State income tax follows the same logic but on the state's own bracket schedule (which varies from 0% to 13%+ depending on state and bracket). Local income tax — NYC, Yonkers, Pennsylvania's Earned Income Tax, Maryland's county tax — adds on top of state in the handful of jurisdictions that levy it. We don't model local tax in this calculator.

FICA — Federal Insurance Contributions Act — is the 7.65% combined Social Security plus Medicare tax. It applies to wages, not taxable income, so 401(k) contributions don't reduce it (only Section 125 items like HSA and FSA do). Above the Social Security wage base, only the 1.45% Medicare portion continues, plus a 0.9% additional Medicare surtax on wages above $200,000 single / $250,000 married joint.

Finally, post-tax deductions: Roth 401(k), garnishments, union dues, charitable payroll deductions, anything taken out after taxes. These cost a full dollar of take-home per dollar deducted, unlike pre-tax items.

Federal income tax

Funds the federal government's general operating budget — defense, Medicare/Medicaid funding (separate from FICA), federal employees, interest on the national debt, and discretionary spending across every cabinet department. Applied to taxable income at progressive rates: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, 37%. Your effective rate is almost always lower than your top marginal rate because only the income within each bracket is taxed at that bracket's rate. For most W-2 workers, federal income tax is 8–18% of gross salary.

State income tax

Funds state-level operations: schools, infrastructure, public safety, state retirement systems. Rates vary from 0% (eight no-tax states) to 13.3% (California's top bracket). About half the states use flat rates (Illinois 4.95%, Pennsylvania 3.07%, etc.) and the rest use progressive brackets like the federal system. Some states also tax dividend and interest income differently — New Hampshire only taxes those, not wages.

Social Security (FICA, OASDI)

6.2% on wages up to the annual wage base ($168,600 for 2024). Funds Social Security retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. The wage base exists because Social Security benefits also cap at a maximum — you can't earn benefits on income above the base, so you don't pay tax on it either. Your employer matches your 6.2% (the "employer half"), which is invisible on your paystub but real compensation cost to the employer.

Medicare (FICA, HI)

1.45% on all wages, no cap. Funds Medicare hospital insurance for seniors. Your employer matches the 1.45%. Above the additional Medicare threshold ($200K single, $250K married joint, $125K married separate), an extra 0.9% surtax applies — which the employer does not match. The threshold is why payroll deductions look different on high earners' paystubs once they cross it.

The "self-employment tax" version

A 1099 self-employed worker pays both the employee and employer sides of FICA themselves — that's the 15.3% self-employment tax. For W-2 workers, you only see your half. The other half is in the employer's books. Knowing this is important when comparing a W-2 salary to a 1099 contract rate: the contractor has to charge enough to cover both halves. Our salary-to-hourly converter handles that math; this calculator only models the W-2 employee side.

Pre-tax deductions are subtracted from your gross pay before federal income tax is calculated. So a $1,000 pre-tax 401(k) contribution reduces your taxable income by $1,000, which saves you about $220 in federal tax if you're in the 22% bracket. Net cost to take-home: roughly $780 (the contribution itself minus the tax you'd have paid anyway). For an HSA contribution, it's even better — HSA and FSA also reduce FICA wages, so you save another 7.65% in payroll tax on top of the income tax. A $1,000 HSA contribution costs about $700 of take-home.

Post-tax deductions come out after taxes are calculated. They reduce take-home dollar-for-dollar. A $1,000 Roth 401(k) contribution costs $1,000 of take-home, because the tax was already applied to your gross before the deduction. The trade-off: Roth withdrawals in retirement are tax-free, while traditional 401(k) withdrawals are taxed at your then-current bracket.

Pre-tax items that reduce both income tax and FICA

• HSA (Health Savings Account) — requires a high-deductible health plan. $4,150 single / $8,300 family in 2024.
• FSA (Flexible Spending Account) — healthcare expenses, $3,200 cap in 2024. Use-it-or-lose-it.
• Section 125 health, dental, vision premiums — your share of employer-sponsored health insurance.
• Dependent Care FSA — childcare and elder care. $5,000 cap.
• Commuter benefits — transit, parking. $315/mo cap each in 2024.

Pre-tax items that reduce income tax but NOT FICA

• Traditional 401(k) / 403(b) / 457 — employee contributions reduce taxable income but FICA still applies to the contribution. $23,000 cap in 2024 ($30,500 if 50+).
• Traditional IRA — same logic but separate contribution and may be capped by income.

Post-tax items

• Roth 401(k) — same contribution limit as traditional, but no tax break now; tax-free in retirement.
• Roth IRA — $7,000 limit (2024), with income-based phase-outs.
• Garnishments, union dues, charitable payroll deductions — full-dollar reductions.

The order of operations matters

On your paystub, pre-tax deductions come out first, then federal and state tax are calculated on the reduced amount, then FICA is calculated (with HSA/FSA already removed but 401(k) still in), then post-tax deductions come out at the end. This calculator follows the same order — flip the pre-tax sliders and watch how the federal/state line drops by less than the dollar amount you contributed.

Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming have no state income tax on earned income. New Hampshire and Washington each have wrinkles — NH taxes interest and dividends only (phasing out by 2027), Washington taxes capital gains over a threshold but not wages. For W-2 workers earning $100K+, moving to one of these states can save $5,000–$10,000 a year on the state tax line alone.

The catch: state budgets have to come from somewhere. States without income tax usually compensate with higher property tax, higher sales tax, or higher gas/excise taxes. Whether the total tax burden is lower depends on your personal mix.

Property tax

Texas property tax averages around 1.6% of home value annually — about double the national average. A $500K home in Texas costs $8,000/year in property tax. In Florida, average effective property tax is 0.8% — closer to the national average, but homestead exemptions are limited and many counties run higher. Both states more than recoup their lack of income tax from homeowners.

Sales tax

Washington has 6.5% state sales tax with local additions reaching 10%+. Tennessee adds 7% statewide plus local on top, and unusually taxes groceries at the full rate. Nevada is 6.85% statewide plus local. For high-spenders, sales tax can be a meaningful drag — the average American household pays $2,000–$4,000/year in sales tax in these states. For savers and investors, sales tax is a smaller bite.

The actual breakeven

A $100K W-2 earner in California pays roughly $6,500 in state income tax. The same earner in Texas pays $0 in state income tax but maybe $8,000 in property tax on a typical home, or $2,500 if renting. The breakeven depends entirely on (a) what you'd pay in property tax — buyers lose ground, renters gain — and (b) how much you spend on taxable goods. Workers with high salaries and modest homes usually come out ahead in no-income-tax states; workers in starter homes or renters with lower spending typically come out much further ahead.

What about remote work?

State income tax follows your residence, not your employer. A California resident working remotely for a Texas company still pays California state tax. A Texas resident working remotely for a California company pays no state income tax. This is why the no-income-tax states have seen significant inbound migration from remote workers since 2020. Watch out for "convenience of the employer" rules in a handful of states (NY, NJ, PA, others) that try to tax remote workers as if they were physically present.

Rule 1: contribute enough to get the full match

If your employer matches 100% of the first 3% you contribute, and you contribute only 2%, you're leaving 1% of your salary on the table — that's a guaranteed 100% return on those dollars. The full employer match is the highest-ROI move on your W-2. Even if every other personal-finance optimization is wrong, getting the full match is right. Set your contribution rate to at least the match ceiling.

Rule 2: aim for 10–15% of gross including the match

Most retirement planning assumes a 10–15% savings rate over a 40+ year career to comfortably replace 70–80% of pre-retirement income. If your employer matches 4%, you need to contribute 6–11% yourself to get there. If your employer doesn't match, you're on the hook for the full 10–15% from your paycheck. The compound interest calculator on this site projects exactly how a given contribution rate compounds over time.

Rule 3: cap at the IRS limit if you can

The 2024 employee contribution limit is $23,000 ($30,500 if you're 50+). Maxing the 401(k) requires earning around $200K+ to fit within a 10–15% savings rate. Below that income, you usually can't max the 401(k) and meet other goals (emergency fund, housing) — which is fine. Contribute what you can, capture the match, and plan to scale up as income grows.

What about Roth vs Traditional?

If your current tax bracket is higher than your expected retirement tax bracket, traditional 401(k) wins. If you expect to be in a higher bracket in retirement (high earners, anyone expecting significant pension or rental income), Roth 401(k) wins. For most W-2 workers in the 22% bracket today, traditional is the call. See our Roth vs Traditional IRA calculator for a detailed comparison — the same logic applies to 401(k) contributions.

The take-home impact is smaller than you'd expect

A $1,000 traditional 401(k) contribution at the 22% federal / 9.3% California state bracket costs about $687 of take-home, not $1,000. The tax savings cushion the cash flow hit significantly. Run the calculator above with your 401(k) at 6% of gross vs 12% of gross — the take-home difference is usually less than half of the contribution difference. That's the leverage of pre-tax deductions: you're spending what was about to be taxed.