How take-home pay is calculated
Take-home pay is gross pay minus every tax withheld from a paycheck. The calculator subtracts three layers of tax in the same order and with the same rules as the salary pages on this site: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and state income tax. It assumes a single filer whose only income is wages, who takes the standard deduction, under tax year 2025 rules.
Federal income tax
The 2025 standard deduction for a single filer is $15,750, so the first $15,750 of pay is not taxed at all. The rest is taxed in slices: 10% up to $11,925 of taxable income, 12% up to $48,475, 22% up to $103,350, 24% up to $197,300, 32% up to $250,525, 35% up to $626,350 and 37% above that. Only the dollars inside each slice pay that slice's rate, which is why a raise never lowers take-home pay. The "federal bracket" figure in the results is the rate on your last dollar, not your average rate.
Social Security and Medicare
Employees pay 6.2% Social Security tax on wages up to $176,100, a ceiling of $10,918 a year, and 1.45% Medicare tax on all wages. Medicare adds a further 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for a single filer. These two taxes are the same in every state and are shown as one slice in the bar.
State income tax
Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming do not tax wages, so state tax is zero there. The other states use their own brackets, standard deductions, exemptions and credits, which the calculator applies from the 2025 rules; some use a single flat rate and some, like California and New York, climb through nine or ten brackets. Local income taxes such as those in New York City, Philadelphia or parts of Ohio, Indiana and Maryland are not included.
Reading your results
The headline figures show take-home pay per month and per year, your total tax rate as a share of gross pay, and your federal bracket. The payslip table lists each deduction per year and per month, and the pay-period table converts take-home pay to every two weeks, weekly and hourly amounts using a 2,080-hour work year.
If you also choose a county, the calculator subtracts the same four living costs used on every county page: a HUD Fair Market Rent for a one- or two-bedroom apartment, a USDA Thrifty Food Plan grocery budget, home energy at state prices and gasoline for about 11,106 miles a year. What remains is the monthly and yearly margin for savings, insurance, transportation beyond fuel, debt and everything else.
What the calculator leaves out
Real paychecks include deductions that depend on your employer and your choices: health insurance premiums, 401(k) contributions, flexible spending accounts, union dues and state disability or paid-leave levies such as those in California, New Jersey, New York and Washington. Pre-tax contributions lower your income tax, while after-tax ones do not, so your actual deposit can be higher or lower than the estimate. Use the result as a reliable starting point for comparing places and jobs rather than a prediction of one specific check.