Paycheck Calculator

Skycally's Paycheck Calculator estimates your true take-home pay in seconds. Enter your gross wages and pay frequency, pick your filing status and state, and the tool applies current-year federal tax brackets, the correct FICA rates (Social Security up to the annual wage base, Medicare, and the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax where it applies), plus your state's income tax logic — flat rate, progressive brackets, or none at all. Pre-tax deductions for your 401(k), HSA, and traditional health insurance premium are subtracted the right way so your effective and marginal tax rates reflect what actually lands in your bank account, not a rough guess.

In the United States, paycheck tax withholding is a layered system. The federal government uses progressive brackets so only the dollars above each threshold are taxed at the higher rate — that's why your marginal rate (the rate on your next dollar) is almost always higher than your effective rate (your total tax divided by your gross). On top of federal income tax, employers withhold 6.2% for Social Security up to the annual wage base cap and 1.45% for Medicare with no cap, plus a 0.9% Additional Medicare surcharge above $200,000 single / $250,000 joint. If you're self-employed, both halves of FICA land on you as a 15.3% self-employment tax, calculated on 92.35% of your net earnings — this calculator switches into that mode automatically when you toggle Self-Employed.

State income tax is where paychecks really diverge. Nine states — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming — collect no wage tax at all, so your state line reads $0. States like Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina, Michigan, and Georgia use a single flat rate. California, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Virginia layer progressive brackets similar to the federal system, and their top rates can be significantly higher. Use the state-vs-state comparison below the main results to see exactly what the same gross salary would net you in up to three states — a useful sanity check before accepting a job offer or planning a relocation.

Once you know your real take-home, use it to make better decisions. Budget from net pay, not gross — that's the number that actually shows up in your account. If you're weighing a mortgage, plug your net into our Mortgage Calculator to see the loan size that keeps housing under roughly 28% of your take-home. If you're deciding whether to bump up your 401(k) contribution, the Compound Interest Calculator can show what an extra 2% today grows into over 30 years. And if you're comparing an offer paid in a different currency, our Currency Converter gives you a like-for-like number to plug back in here.