Take-Home Pay Calculator by State

Your salary is not your paycheck. This free take-home pay calculator estimates your 2026 net pay from gross salary — federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and state income tax — for all 50 states plus Washington, DC, at weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly pay. See exactly where every dollar of withholding goes, and why the same job pays differently across state lines.

How to Use the Take-Home Pay Calculator

Four fields, one honest number:

1. Enter your gross annual salary. Use your base salary before any deductions — the number on the offer letter, not the number that lands in your bank account.
2. Pick your pay frequency. Weekly (52 paychecks), biweekly (26), semi-monthly (24), or monthly (12). The annual math is identical either way; this just sizes each check.
3. Choose your filing status and state. This version covers single filers in all 50 states plus DC — the combination most new graduates and job-switchers need.
4. Press Calculate Take-Home Pay. You get the full waterfall: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, state income tax, total tax, your effective rate, and your net pay per check and per year.

The most useful move is to run it twice: once for the state you live in now, once for the state you are considering. Job offers are quoted in gross dollars, but your life is lived in net ones — a $5,000 raise that moves you from Texas to California can leave you poorer.

How Paycheck Withholding Works

Every paycheck passes through three withholding layers, in this order of familiarity:

1. Federal income tax. The IRS taxes taxable income, not gross income. First the standard deduction comes off — $16,100 for single filers in 2026 — and the remainder is sliced through seven progressive brackets. The 2026 single-filer brackets:

The key insight: brackets are marginal. If your taxable income is $60,000, you do not pay 22% on all of it — you pay 10% on the first slice, 12% on the next, and 22% only on the dollars above $50,400. That is why a "higher bracket" from a raise never costs you money overall.

2. FICA payroll tax. This is Social Security and Medicare, and it works differently: there is no standard deduction, so it hits from the first dollar. In 2026 employees pay 6.2% Social Security on wages up to the $184,500 wage base (a maximum of $11,439 for the year), plus 1.45% Medicare on all wages with no cap. Single filers earning over $200,000 pay an additional 0.9% Medicare tax on the excess. Your employer matches the 6.2% and 1.45% out of its own pocket.

3. State income tax. Nine states tax wages at 0%. Flat-tax states charge one rate on all taxable income — Pennsylvania's 3.07% is the lowest of the bunch. Progressive states climb bracket by bracket, with California reaching 13.3% at the top. Some cities add their own tax on top (New York City's, up to 3.876%, is the famous one), which this calculator does not include.

Worked Example: $75,000 in Texas vs. California

Same single filer, same $75,000 salary, two states — biweekly pay. Federal tax is identical; everything after that diverges.

The federal math: $75,000 minus the $16,100 standard deduction leaves $58,900 taxable — 10% on the first $12,400 ($1,240), 12% on the next $38,000 ($4,560), and 22% on the remaining $8,500 ($1,870), totaling $7,670. FICA takes $5,737.50 off the gross. Then Texas stops — no state tax — while California's graduated brackets (1% to 9.3% at this income) take another $2,096.05.

The gap is $2,096.05 a year, or about $80.62 per biweekly paycheck — for the identical job at the identical salary. That is the number to keep in mind when comparing offers across state lines, because no recruiter will put it in the offer letter.

Which States Get Special Treatment in This Calculator

Ten states use fully verified 2026 figures: California (nine graduated brackets, 1%–12.3%, plus a 1% surcharge over $1 million), New York (4%–10.9% across nine brackets), New Jersey (1.4%–10.75%, not inflation-indexed), Virginia (2%–5.75% in four brackets), Illinois (4.95% flat), Pennsylvania (3.07% flat), Massachusetts (5% flat plus a 4% surtax above roughly $1.1 million), and the no-tax states Washington, Texas, and Florida. The results screen tells you which treatment your state received.

For the remaining states, the calculator uses published 2026 flat rates where they are well established (Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Utah) and marks the rest with a clear "top-bracket estimate" note — a conservative approximation that you should confirm with your payroll department. Alaska, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming join the no-tax list alongside Florida, Texas, and Washington.

Limitations

This is a 2026 planning estimate, not tax advice and not a payroll figure. It assumes a single filer taking the standard deduction with no tax credits — it excludes 401(k) and HSA contributions, health insurance premiums, and other pre-tax deductions that lower your real taxable income. It excludes local income taxes (notably New York City's), state-specific deductions and credits, and the alternative minimum tax. State taxable income is approximated using the federal standard deduction, which differs from some states' own deductions, and estimated states are flagged accordingly. Withholding on an actual paycheck is also annualized from your W-4 settings, which can differ slightly from this annual model. For the number that lands in your account, your employer's payroll run and a tax professional have the final word.

A paycheck is where business maths becomes personal. If the payslip has you thinking about going independent, start with the business name guide — forty ideas, then the ownership checks — and keep the commission calculation guide nearby if any part of the new income is percentage-based.

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