Take-home pay calculator

Turn a gross salary into the money that actually reaches your bank — after federal tax, Social Security, Medicare, and state tax. The state rate is yours to set, because it swings the answer more than anything else on the form.

How the math works

Take-home pay is what's left after four separate deductions come out of gross salary. The calculator runs each one and subtracts the total.

Each piece has its own rule:

• Federal income tax is progressive. The calculator subtracts your pre-tax 401(k) and the $14,600 standard deduction (single, 2024), then applies the brackets — 10%, 12%, 22% and up — only to the dollars inside each band.
• Social Security is 6.2% of wages, but only up to the $168,600 wage base. Above that, the 6.2% stops.
• Medicare is 1.45% of every dollar, with no cap, plus an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for a single filer.
• State income tax is a flat rate you enter, applied to salary after the pre-tax contribution. Real state systems have their own brackets and deductions, so this is a stand-in — more on that below.

Social Security and Medicare together are 7.65% — the FICA line on a pay stub. One thing worth naming: a traditional 401(k) contribution lowers your income tax, but Social Security and Medicare are still charged on the full salary. Pre-tax retirement money dodges income tax, not payroll tax.

Worked example

Take a single filer earning $59,540 — the U.S. median earnings for a full-time, year-round worker. They live in one of the nine states with no income tax, contribute nothing to a 401(k) yet, and are paid every two weeks.

Federal income tax on $44,940 of taxable income (after the standard deduction) works out to $5,160.80. Social Security takes $3,691.48, Medicare takes $863.33. No state tax. That leaves take-home pay of $49,824.39 a year, or $1,916.32 per paycheck.

So the take-home rate is 83.68%. The effective tax rate — every tax combined, divided by gross — is 16.32%. Note how far that sits below the 22% bracket the last few dollars of salary fall into. The bracket is the rate on your top dollar; the effective rate is what you actually pay across all of it.

Now move that same worker to a state with a 5% income tax. State tax becomes $2,977, and take-home drops to $46,847.39. Same salary, same federal math, nearly three thousand dollars apart. That gap is the whole reason this calculator makes you set the state rate by hand.

When this calculator is wrong

A take-home number is an estimate with a few honest holes in it. Here are the ones that move the answer most.

• The per-paycheck figure is withholding, not your final tax bill. Your employer withholds based on the W-4, which is a forecast. Your actual tax is settled when you file, and the difference comes back as a refund or goes out as a balance due. A year of paychecks rarely adds up to your true after-tax income — it's close, but treat it as an estimate, not a settled number.
• Above the Social Security cap, take-home climbs mid-year. Once year-to-date wages pass $168,600, the 6.2% Social Security tax stops for the rest of the year, and every remaining paycheck gets bigger. A single flat per-check figure — what most calculators show — can't reflect that step-up. For high earners it's a real, predictable raise in the back half of the year.
• State tax is a flat stand-in. This is the deliberate simplification. Real state income taxes range from nothing in nine states to a top marginal rate of 13.3% in California, and most have their own brackets, deductions, and local add-ons. A flat rate gets you in the neighborhood; it is not your state's actual return. Nine states charge zero, so the honest default here is 0% until you know your rate.
• It leaves out the rest of the pay stub. Health, dental, and vision premiums, HSA contributions, and other benefits come out too — and some of those (unlike a 401(k)) also cut your Social Security and Medicare wages. Add them and take-home drops further.

What to do with the result

The take-home number is the input to every other money decision, so anchor your budget to it, not to the gross salary on the offer letter. A $59,540 job is a roughly $1,916-per-paycheck job before you've touched state tax or benefits.

If the take-home rate looks lower than you expected, the largest lever you control is the pre-tax 401(k) line. Contributing there cuts federal and state income tax immediately — a dollar in doesn't cost a full dollar of take-home — while still building the balance. Run the number both ways in the calculator and watch the net move. Once you know your take-home, the next step is deciding where it goes.

Common questions

How much of a $60,000 salary do I actually take home?

For a single filer in a no-income-tax state, a salary near $59,540 nets about $49,824.39 a year after federal tax, Social Security, and Medicare — roughly an 83.68% take-home rate. Add a state income tax and it drops; a 5% state takes another $2,977.

Why is my paycheck smaller than my salary divided by 26?

Gross salary is before tax. Federal income tax, Social Security (6.2%), and Medicare (1.45%) come out of every check, plus any state tax and benefits. The 7.65% FICA line alone accounts for a large part of the gap.

Does my 401(k) contribution lower my taxes?

A traditional 401(k) contribution lowers your federal and state income tax, because it comes out before income tax is figured. It does not lower Social Security or Medicare — those are charged on your full salary either way.

Why did my paycheck get bigger later in the year?

If your wages crossed $168,600, Social Security tax stops for the rest of the year. That 6.2% stays in your paycheck until January resets the wage base. It's a predictable back-half raise for higher earners.

Is take-home pay the same as after-tax income?

Close, but not identical. Take-home is what withholding leaves in your check. Your true after-tax income is settled at filing, when a refund or a balance due reconciles what was withheld against what you actually owed.