Take Home Pay Calculator

What gets withheld from your paycheck — and why

Your salary is a gross figure — the number on your offer letter — but it is never the amount that actually reaches your bank account. Before your employer issues each paycheck, several layers of withholding are removed in sequence. First, any pre-tax benefits you have elected, most commonly a 401(k) retirement contribution, are subtracted from your wages. Then federal income tax is calculated on what remains (after a standard deduction), using a progressive bracket system where higher slices of income are taxed at higher rates. Separately, FICA payroll taxes — Social Security and Medicare — are withheld to fund those federal programs. Finally, depending on where you live and work, state and sometimes city or local income tax is layered on top. What is left after all of that is your net pay, also called take-home pay — the actual amount you can spend, save, or budget with.

Why pre-tax contributions are different

A pre-tax 401(k) contribution is subtracted from your wages before your federal taxable income is calculated, which is what makes it "pre-tax." That lowers the income that gets taxed at your marginal federal rate — and, in this calculator's model, also lowers the wage base that Social Security and Medicare are calculated on — so part of what looks like a bigger paycheck reduction is actually offset by a smaller tax bill. This is one reason many financial advisors recommend contributing at least enough to capture any employer match: it reduces your current tax bill while building retirement savings at the same time.

How this calculator estimates your net pay

The calculator works through your annual figures in five steps, then divides the result to show per-period equivalents:

1. Pre-tax deduction = salary × (401(k) % ÷ 100)
2. Federal taxable income = max(0, salary − pre-tax deduction − standard deduction)
3. FICA wages = salary − pre-tax deduction;
   Social Security = 6.2% × min(FICA wages, $168,600); Medicare = 1.45% × FICA wages
4. State + local tax = FICA wages × (state rate % ÷ 100)
5. Net pay = salary − pre-tax deduction − federal tax − Social Security − Medicare − state tax

Step 2 uses the 2024 IRS standard deduction for your filing status — $14,600 for Single filers and $29,200 for Married Filing Jointly — and then walks the remaining taxable income through that year's progressive federal brackets (10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%), taxing only the slice of income that falls inside each bracket at that bracket's rate, exactly like our income tax calculator. Step 3 applies FICA to your wages before the standard deduction is subtracted — Social Security is capped at the 2024 wage base of $168,600, while Medicare applies to all wages with no cap (this calculator skips the additional 0.9% Medicare surtax that applies above very high income thresholds, since it affects relatively few earners). Step 4 applies your own flat state-and-local rate estimate to the same FICA-wage base, since state systems vary too widely to model precisely with one set of brackets.

From annual net pay to your paycheck

Once annual net pay is known, the calculator simply divides it to estimate what shows up on a typical check: dividing by 12 approximates a monthly payroll, and dividing by 26 approximates the bi-weekly schedule (every two weeks) that a large share of U.S. employers use. Your annual take-home total does not change based on how often you are paid — only how it is sliced.

Worked example — $75,000 salary, single filer, 5% 401(k), 5% state tax

Suppose you earn $75,000 a year, file as Single, contribute 5% of your salary to a pre-tax 401(k), and estimate a flat 5% state-and-local tax rate. The pre-tax deduction is 5% of $75,000 = $3,750, leaving FICA wages of $71,250. Subtracting the $14,600 standard deduction from $71,250 leaves $56,650 of federal taxable income, which — walked through the 2024 Single brackets — produces an estimated federal tax of roughly $7,516 (10% on the first $11,600 ≈ $1,160, 12% on the next $35,550 ≈ $4,266, and 22% on the remaining $9,500 ≈ $2,090). Social Security comes to 6.2% × $71,250 ≈ $4,418, Medicare to 1.45% × $71,250 ≈ $1,033, and the estimated state tax to 5% × $71,250 ≈ $3,563. Subtracting the pre-tax deduction and all four tax amounts from $75,000 leaves an estimated annual net pay of roughly $54,721 — about $4,560 per month or $2,105 every two weeks. Try the same numbers in the calculator above (or swap in your own) to see the full breakdown for yourself.

Caveats — what this estimate leaves out

• Post-tax deductions. Health, dental, and vision premiums, garnishments, union dues, and other after-tax deductions are not modeled — each of these would further reduce the amount on your actual check.
• Variable pay. Bonuses, overtime, commissions, and other irregular income are excluded; this calculator assumes a flat annual salary.
• High-earner Medicare surtax. The additional 0.9% Medicare tax that applies to wages above certain thresholds is intentionally left out to keep the model simple.
• Local taxes and credits. City or local income taxes beyond the flat state estimate you provide, as well as tax credits (such as the child tax credit) that could lower your final bill, are not separately modeled.
• Outside the U.S. This tool is built around U.S. federal brackets and FICA. The United Kingdom, for example, withholds through PAYE income tax bands and National Insurance contributions instead — entirely different thresholds and mechanics — so this calculator should not be used to estimate UK or other non-U.S. paychecks.

Disclaimer

This calculator provides a simplified, ballpark estimate only and is not tax, legal, or payroll advice. It uses 2024 U.S. federal income-tax brackets, standard deductions, and FICA payroll-tax rules, plus a flat state-and-local tax rate that you supply — your actual withholding will depend on your W-4 elections, your employer's payroll system, your specific benefits, local taxes, filing details, and other factors not captured here. Treat the result as a starting point for budgeting, not as an official paycheck calculation, and check your actual pay stub, your employer's HR or payroll department, or a qualified tax professional for precise figures.