Not sure where your salary sits? The table below shows what a single employee takes home in the US at 7 common salaries (calculated for California, the calculator’s default state), using the same rules as the calculator above. A $30,000 salary leaves $25,670 a year, or $2,139 a month, which is 86% of the gross figure. At $150,000 the take-home share is 68%, or $8,510 a month.

Select a salary in the first column for its own page with the full breakdown, hourly and weekly pay. The last column shows the share of any extra pay you would keep after tax and contributions.

Two numbers describe your tax burden. The effective rate is the share of your whole salary that goes to tax and contributions. In the US it rises from 14.4% to 31.9% across the salaries in the table above. The marginal rate is the share of your next unit of income that is taxed, and it is what matters when you consider a raise, overtime or a bonus.

The marginal rate is lowest around $30,000, where 23% of each extra amount goes to tax, and highest around $150,000, where it reaches 42%. Between those points the rate is not always a smooth climb, because allowances, credits and caps on social contributions switch on and off at different incomes.

A practical example: a 10% raise on $75,000 adds $7,500 to your gross pay but $4,524 to your take-home pay a year, so 60% of the raise reaches your account. Use the calculator and enter a bonus or overtime to see the same effect for your own numbers.

To see how the calculation works, here is a $75,000 salary for a single employee (calculated for California, the calculator’s default state). The average full-time wage is $86,977, so this is a typical figure. The result is $57,830 a year, $4,819 a month or about $27.80 an hour on a 40-hour week.

The largest deduction is Federal income tax, at $7,670 or 10.2% of gross pay. Taken together, tax and contributions amount to 22.9% of the salary. Put another way, you work from 1 January until about 25 March each year just to cover them, and about 9 of every 40 hours you work. Credits, where they apply, show as a plus sign because they reduce the tax you owe.

Job offers are quoted per year but bills arrive monthly, so it helps to see the same salary per period. The figures below divide the $75,000 example by 12 months, 26 two-week periods, 52 weeks, 260 working days and 2,080 working hours (a 40-hour week). Your own pay schedule, hours and holidays can differ, and you can change them under More Options in the calculator.

How much of a typical paycheque survives tax in the US? The table applies the calculator to benchmark salaries from official statistics (the sources are listed in the “Do You Earn a Good Salary?” chart above). A full-time worker on the minimum wage keeps 84% of gross pay, while the average earner keeps 75%.

Single employee, California, standard settings, tax year 2026.

Yes. On the same $75,000 salary, take-home pay runs from $55,335 in Oregon to $61,593 in Florida, a gap of $6,258 a year ($521 a month). The middle of the range is Wisconsin at $58,998. The state you choose changes the local income tax and any local payroll charges added to the national system, so use the state selector next to the salary box to see your own place. The section “Your Net Pay Across All States” above compares every state for the exact salary you enter.

Most American employers pay every two weeks or twice a month, and the salary quoted in a job offer is almost always the gross figure before anything is withheld. Your employer withholds federal income tax based on the Form W-4 you file, takes Social Security and Medicare contributions (together known as FICA) and, in most states, withholds state income tax as well. What reaches your bank account is called take-home or net pay.

This calculator works for a single filer who takes the standard deduction and has no other income, using the 2026 federal rules and each state’s own rules. Choose your state from the list under the salary box.

Federal income tax

Progressive rates of 10% to 37% applied to income above the standard deduction of $16,100 (single filer, 2026). Each slice of income is taxed at its own rate, so only the part above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate.

Social Security

6.2% of wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500. Your employer pays a matching amount on top, which does not appear on your payslip.

Medicare

1.45% of all wages, plus an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000.

State income tax

Nine states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming) do not tax wages. The others use flat or graduated rates, with their own deductions and credits, which the calculator applies for each state.

State payroll programmes

Some states charge employees for disability, paid family leave or long-term care insurance: California SDI, New York and New Jersey premiums, Washington Paid Leave and WA Cares, and paid-leave premiums in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island and Hawaii. These are included, using the maximum employee share where the law allows employers to charge less. Local city taxes are not included.