💰 Salary & Paycheck Calculator
Estimate your take-home pay after federal tax and FICA
Your Pay Details
| Gross Pay (per period) | $0.00 |
| Federal Income Tax | -$0.00 |
| Social Security (6.2%) | -$0.00 |
| Medicare (1.45%) | -$0.00 |
| Additional Medicare (0.9%) | -$0.00 |
| 401(k) Contribution | -$0.00 |
| Health Insurance | -$0.00 |
| Extra Withholding | -$0.00 |
| Net Take-Home Pay | $0.00 |
Federal Tax Information
Voluntary Pre-Tax Deductions
From Gross Pay to Net Pay: Every Step We Run
This page documents, in plain language, exactly how the calculator above turns your hourly rate or salary into an estimated take‑home paycheck — including the 2024–2025 federal tax brackets, FICA rates, and deduction order it uses internally.
Your Inputs
Before any math happens, the tool reads seven values from the form: pay type (hourly or salary), hourly rate & weekly hours or annual salary, pay frequency, federal filing status, W‑4 allowances, additional per‑paycheck withholding, 401(k) contribution percentage, and a per‑paycheck health insurance premium.
Annual Gross Pay
Everything downstream is calculated from a single number: your gross pay for the full year. Hourly workers have this projected forward at 52 weeks; salaried workers enter it directly.
Per‑Paycheck Gross Pay
The annual figure is divided by the number of pay periods in a year for the schedule you selected.
| Schedule | Periods/yr |
|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 |
| Bi‑weekly | 26 |
| Semi‑monthly | 24 |
| Monthly | 12 |
| Quarterly | 4 |
| Annually | 1 |
Pre‑Tax Deductions
401(k) contributions are taken as a percentage of each paycheck's gross pay. Health insurance is a flat dollar amount per paycheck. Both come out before federal tax is calculated, which is what makes them "pre‑tax."
Taxable Income for Federal Withholding
The pre‑tax deductions are annualized (multiplied back out by the pay frequency) and subtracted from annual gross, along with the IRS standard deduction for your filing status and the dollar value of any W‑4 allowances you claimed.
| Single | $14,600 |
| Married Filing Jointly | $29,200 |
| Head of Household | $21,900 |
Federal Income Tax (Progressive Brackets)
Federal tax is not your taxable income times one flat rate. Each bracket's rate only applies to the slice of income that falls within it — income is taxed layer by layer from the bottom up until it reaches your taxable income amount.
| Up to | Rate |
|---|---|
| $11,600 | 10% |
| $47,150 | 12% |
| $100,525 | 22% |
| $191,950 | 24% |
| $243,725 | 32% |
| $609,350 | 35% |
| above | 37% |
| Up to | Rate |
|---|---|
| $23,200 | 10% |
| $94,300 | 12% |
| $201,050 | 22% |
| $383,900 | 24% |
| $487,450 | 32% |
| $731,200 | 35% |
| above | 37% |
| Up to | Rate |
|---|---|
| $16,550 | 10% |
| $63,100 | 12% |
| $100,500 | 22% |
| $191,950 | 24% |
| $243,700 | 32% |
| $609,350 | 35% |
| above | 37% |
Then the annual figure is converted back to a per‑paycheck amount, and any extra withholding you requested is added on top:
Medicare (1.45%) & Additional Medicare (0.9%)
Medicare is 1.45% of all gross wages — there's no wage cap. High earners also owe an Additional Medicare surtax of 0.9% on gross wages above $200,000/year.
Total Deductions & Net Take‑Home Pay
All five deduction types — federal tax, Social Security, Medicare, Additional Medicare, and the pre‑tax 401(k)/health amounts — are added up and subtracted from gross pay for that period. Net pay is never allowed to go below $0.
Annual Projections
Finally, the per‑paycheck tax figures are multiplied back out by the pay frequency to show what you'll pay and keep over the full year.
Assumptions & Limitations
- TAX YEAR Uses 2024–2025 IRS federal tax brackets and standard deduction amounts. These figures change annually and are not auto‑updated.
- NO STATE TAX State and local income taxes are not calculated at all — only federal income tax and FICA are included.
- ALLOWANCES Federal withholding allowances are valued at a flat $4,300/year each — a simplified stand‑in for the post‑2020 W‑4's more detailed worksheet system.
- EMPLOYEE-SIDE ONLY Social Security and Medicare are shown for the employee's share only; the employer's matching contribution is not displayed.
- ADDL MEDICARE The 0.9% Additional Medicare surtax uses one flat $200,000 threshold for everyone, rather than the IRS's status‑specific thresholds.
- ROUNDING All dollar figures are calculated in full precision and only rounded for display, so small differences ($0.01–$0.02) versus manual recalculation are expected.
- ESTIMATE ONLY This tool does not account for multiple jobs, self‑employment tax, additional income, itemized deductions, tax credits, or employer‑specific benefit rules.
About This Paycheck Calculator
This paycheck calculator helps employees, freelancers, and HR teams see roughly what lands in their bank account on payday. It works for both hourly and salaried pay, and it applies 2024–2025 federal tax brackets along with Social Security and Medicare (FICA) to estimate your take-home pay no matter how often you're paid — weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly.
🏦 Federal Tax Withholding
Uses the current IRS marginal brackets (10%–37%), adjusted for filing status and W-4 allowances, to estimate a realistic federal withholding amount each pay period.
🔐 FICA Contributions
Automatically figures Social Security (6.2%, capped at the $168,600 wage base) and Medicare (1.45%), adding the extra 0.9% Medicare surtax once earnings pass $200,000.
📅 All Pay Frequencies
Splits annual income into per-paycheck amounts for any schedule, so you can compare what a weekly check looks like versus a monthly or quarterly one.
How to Use This Pay Calculator
Five quick steps to get an estimate of your net pay:
- Pick Hourly or Salary. Hourly workers enter their rate and average weekly hours; salaried workers enter their total annual pay.
- Set Your Pay Frequency. Choose how often you're paid — this is what determines how your annual income is divided into each paycheck.
- Fill In Federal Tax Details. Select a filing status, add your W-4 allowances, and optionally include extra withholding if you'd rather over-withhold for a bigger refund.
- Add Pre-Tax Deductions (Optional). A 401(k) percentage and a health insurance premium both reduce your taxable gross pay, which in turn lowers federal withholding.
- Hit Calculate. You'll get your net pay per check, a full breakdown of every deduction, and a projection of your after-tax income for the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between gross pay and net pay?
Gross pay is everything you earn before deductions — hourly rate times hours, or annual salary split across pay periods. Net pay is what's actually deposited after federal tax, FICA, and any voluntary deductions like 401(k) contributions or health insurance come out.
How accurate is this calculator?
It's built on the official 2024–2025 IRS brackets and FICA rates, so the federal-tax portion is fairly reliable. It doesn't account for state or local taxes, which differ a lot by location, and situations like multiple jobs or self-employment income add complexity a simple calculator can't capture. For precise numbers, a CPA or the IRS's own Tax Withholding Estimator is a better source.
What is FICA and how is it calculated?
FICA — the Federal Insurance Contributions Act — covers two payroll taxes: Social Security (6.2% of wages, capped at $168,600 for 2024) and Medicare (1.45% on all wages, plus an extra 0.9% once you're earning over $200,000). Employers match the employee share, but this tool only shows what comes out of your own paycheck.
How do pre-tax deductions affect take-home pay?
Things like traditional 401(k) contributions and employer health premiums come out of your pay before federal tax is applied, which shrinks your taxable income. So putting 6% into a 401(k) on a $1,000 weekly paycheck only taxes the remaining $940 — meaning the retirement contribution effectively costs you less than its face value once the tax savings are factored in.
What's the difference between bi-weekly and semi-monthly pay?
Bi-weekly means a paycheck every two weeks (26 a year); semi-monthly means twice a month on fixed dates, like the 1st and 15th (24 a year). Bi-weekly schedules have two extra paychecks, so each one is a bit smaller even though your annual total is identical. This calculator handles that difference automatically.
Social Security (6.2%)
Social Security is withheld at a flat 6.2% — but only on wages up to the annual wage base ($168,600). Earnings above that cap are not subject to Social Security tax. This calculation uses your gross pay, before the pre‑tax 401(k)/health deductions.