US paycheck by state: from gross pay to take-home pay

The direct answer: what comes out of a US paycheck

Gross pay is the full amount you earn before anything is taken out. Three kinds of withholding normally come out of it. The first is federal income tax, which your employer withholds based on the Form W-4 you filed. The second is FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, which funds Social Security and Medicare and is set in the Internal Revenue Code. The third is state income tax and any other state payroll deduction, which depends entirely on the state where you work.

The federal rules are the same everywhere in the country. The IRS restates the 2026 FICA rates in Publication 15-A, which confirms a 6.2% employee Social Security rate and a 1.45% Medicare rate. The federal income tax withheld from each paycheck is calculated with the methods and tables in IRS Publication 15-T, which the IRS released for 2026 with updates for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21. State rules differ. Some states use a flat rate, some use brackets, and nine states impose no broad state income tax on wages.

How the figure is worked out, step by step

The method is the same for every employee. Only the inputs change. Work through the steps in this order.

1. Work out gross pay for one pay period. Divide the annual salary by the number of pay periods in the year. A $70,000 salary paid every two weeks is 26 paychecks.
2. Subtract pre-tax deductions that reduce the wages used for income tax, such as some retirement contributions and some health premiums. Not every pre-tax item also reduces the wages used for FICA, so ask payroll how each one is treated.
3. Find the federal income tax amount. Payroll reads it from the Publication 15-T table or uses the percentage method, which annualizes wages, applies the W-4 entries, runs the brackets and then converts the result back to one pay period.
4. Calculate FICA on gross wages. Take 6.2% for Social Security on wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, and 1.45% for Medicare on all wages.
5. Calculate state income tax using the state's own rule. A flat-rate state multiplies taxable wages by one rate. A bracket state applies a schedule. A state with no wage tax skips this line.
6. Take out any other state payroll deductions and any local tax that applies to the work location or home address.
7. Subtract every line from gross pay. The result is take-home pay for that paycheck.

Two details trip people up. The first is that FICA is matched by the employer, so the employer pays a second 7.65% that does not appear on the employee's stub. The second is that the federal withholding line is an estimate of the year's tax, not the final tax. Any gap is settled when the employee files a return.

Worked example: the same $70,000 salary in two states

Take a single filer paid a $70,000 salary every two weeks, with 26 paychecks a year. The W-4 has only Step 1 completed, with no dependents, no extra withholding and no other income. There are no pre-tax deductions. One version of the employee works in Texas, and the other works in Pennsylvania. The table shows each line for one paycheck before federal income tax.

The FICA lines are identical because federal payroll tax does not depend on the state. Over the year, FICA on this salary is $4,340.00 for Social Security and $1,015.00 for Medicare, a total of $5,355.00. The only line that changes is state income tax. In Pennsylvania, the flat 3.07% rule means the employee gives up $82.65 per paycheck, or $2,148.90 across 26 paychecks, before federal tax is considered. The federal figure is left out of the table on purpose, because it depends on the W-4 entries and the table for the pay period, and it would be the same in both states for the same W-4.

Pennsylvania also has local earned income tax in many municipalities. The rate depends on the location of the work and the home address, so the example does not include it. Ask payroll which local rate applies before you compare two offers.

Cases that change the answer

Several situations can move the take-home figure away from the basic model. None of them change the core method, but each one needs a separate check.

The Social Security wage base is the main cap. For 2026, Social Security tax stops once wages reach $184,500 in a calendar year, while Medicare has no cap. A high earner's paycheck therefore gets smaller in Social Security terms late in the year, and the Medicare line continues on every remaining check. Employers also withhold a 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000 in a calendar year, without any employer match.

Resignation and mid-year starts follow the calendar year, not the job. The wage base resets each January, so an employee who leaves in November and a new hire who starts in December are each measured against the year they work in. A final paycheck still carries FICA and the state line, and payroll must still settle any unused tax withheld in the correct year.

Contract type matters more than most people expect. A worker paid as an independent contractor normally receives no withholding and pays the full self-employment tax of 15.3% through their own return. Whether a person is an employee or a contractor is a legal test with several factors, so this is a question for a lawyer or tax adviser, not a setting in payroll software.

Bonuses and overtime use their own federal rules. The IRS notes that the withholding rate on supplemental wages such as bonuses remains 22% in 2026, rising to 37% on supplemental wages above $1 million in a year. In Pennsylvania, the flat rate applies to compensation generally, so a bonus does not change the state rate, although the federal line for a bonus can be very different from the regular line.

Exemptions from federal withholding exist for some employees, but they are not a general way to lower tax. The 2026 Form W-4 has a checkbox for employees who claim exemption and certify that they meet both conditions on the form. A wrongly claimed exemption leaves a balance due at filing time.

Minimum service does not change the federal withholding rules described here. FICA and federal income tax withholding apply from the first paycheck, with no waiting period. Some state and local rules and some employer benefit plans do have their own eligibility rules, which is a question for HR.

No-income-tax states still produce deductions. Texas withholds no state income tax on wages, but federal income tax and FICA still apply. Some other no-income-tax states still require payroll deductions for state programmes, so a zero state income tax line does not always mean a plain stub. Check the state's labour or revenue agency for the full list.

Common mistakes

The most frequent error is dividing the annual salary by 12 for a biweekly or weekly employee. That creates a payslip that looks right in total but is off by one paycheck in the year. The fix is to use the number of pay periods in the actual pay calendar.

Another common error is treating the 7.65% FICA rate as the employee's whole payroll tax. The employee pays 7.65%, and the employer pays another 7.65%. A business budget that forgets the employer share will understate the cost of each hire. A worker reading a stub that shows only half the FICA cost may also assume the total is smaller than it is.

Many people also use an old W-4 or a state form from a previous job. The IRS publication covers both the pre-2020 form and the 2020-or-later form, and the two produce different inputs. Using the wrong form can lead to too much or too little federal income tax.

Finally, people compare two job offers by gross salary alone. In the example above, the same gross salary leaves $82.65 less per paycheck in Pennsylvania before federal tax and before any local tax. Over a year, that gap is more than $2,100, which is larger than many people expect.

What to check with HR or a lawyer

Before relying on a take-home estimate, ask payroll or HR to confirm the following: the pay calendar and the number of pay periods; the W-4 and any state withholding form on file; which pre-tax deductions reduce wages for income tax and which reduce wages for FICA; the local tax rates for the work location and home address; and whether any state deductions besides income tax apply.

A worker's classification, bonus structure and any change to pay or hours are questions for a lawyer or adviser. Any reduction in pay, hours or roles also brings in the country's notice, consultation and severance rules, so the change should be agreed with the employee or checked with a lawyer first.

An automated checker can read the rules and flag a mismatch, such as a state rate that does not match the work location. It cannot decide how a worker should be classified, and it cannot replace the payroll person who signs off on each run. Results depend on each employee's own W-4 and pay records, which the free audit measures.

This explains the rule in general terms; it is not legal or tax advice for your case.

How employers take the routine payroll checks off their staff

Payroll teams spend a large part of each cycle on repeat checks. They compare new-hire forms with the payroll system, confirm that each state setting matches the employee's work location, and look for deductions that changed without a reason. AI workers can be set to pull hire data, check each state and local setting against the employee record, and prepare a list of exceptions. A person still reviews the exceptions and approves the run. To see which of these checks fit your payroll, book a free automation audit.