Salary Calculator

This calculator starts with your gross annual salary, subtracts the 2026 standard deduction for your filing status ($16,100 single, $32,200 Married Filing Jointly) plus any pre-tax deductions you enter, and applies that taxable amount to the real 2026 progressive federal brackets, 10% up through 37%. It then subtracts FICA (Social Security and Medicare, explained below) plus any post-tax deductions you enter to get your annual take-home pay.

Worked example at the default $70,000 single-filer salary with no deductions: taxable income is $53,900 ($70,000 minus the $16,100 standard deduction), which produces $6,570 of federal tax across the 10%, 12%, and 22% brackets, plus $5,355 in FICA. That leaves $58,075 in annual take-home pay, or about $4,840 per month.

FICA has two parts. Social Security is 6.2% of your wages, but only up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, since income above that isn't taxed for Social Security at all, which is why very high earners see their effective tax rate level off. Medicare is 1.45% with no cap, plus an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on income above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (Married Filing Jointly).

For example, on a $250,000 single-filer salary, only the first $184,500 is taxed for Social Security ($11,439), while all $250,000 is taxed for regular Medicare ($3,625), plus an extra 0.9% on the $50,000 above the $200,000 threshold ($450), for a total FICA bill of $15,514, which this calculator computes automatically.

Contributing to a traditional 401(k), HSA, or FSA lowers the income your federal tax is calculated on, since those contributions come out before taxes are applied. It does not lower your FICA wages, though: Social Security and Medicare are still calculated on your full gross salary, which is why the FICA figure above does not change when you add a pre-tax deduction here.

On the same $70,000 single-filer example, contributing $7,000 (10%) to a 401(k) drops federal tax from $6,570 to $5,380, while FICA stays fixed at $5,355. Take-home pay becomes $52,265 (down from $58,075) since the $7,000 itself goes into the retirement account rather than your paycheck, not because it's taxed away.

Post-tax deductions, like a Roth 401(k) contribution or a wage garnishment, come out after both federal tax and FICA are already calculated, so they don't change any of the tax figures above at all. Enter one here and it subtracts dollar for dollar from your take-home pay: a $3,000 post-tax deduction on the same $70,000 example leaves federal tax and FICA exactly where they were, but drops annual take-home pay to $55,075.

State and local income tax is deliberately left out, since it varies enormously by location, from zero in nine states to over 13% in California. Use the State Income Tax Comparison Calculator to compare states, including a dedicated California page, alongside this one.

This tool also assumes a regular W-2 salaried employee. Self-employed freelancers and 1099 contractors pay self-employment tax instead of standard FICA withholding, a different calculation covered by the Self-Employment Tax Calculator. It also assumes level salary income; if part of your pay is a bonus, employers typically withhold that portion at a flat federal rate rather than your regular bracket rate, a scenario the Salary with Bonus and Benefits Calculator is built for.

This is the general-purpose version. For a role or work arrangement with its own pay structure or benefits assumptions, one of these dedicated calculators may fit better:

• Salary Calculator for Software Engineers - tech-industry pay, equity, and bonus assumptions
• Salary Calculator for Nurses / Healthcare Workers - shift differentials and healthcare-specific pay factors
• Salary Calculator for Teachers - school-year pay schedules and stipends
• Salary Calculator for Freelancers - project-based and hourly freelance income
• Salary Calculator: Contractors vs. Employees - compares 1099 contractor pay against a W-2 salary
• Salary Calculator for Part-Time Workers - prorated pay for less-than-full-time schedules