Paystub calculator for hourly and salary pay
Enter what one pay period is worth and see an estimate of what actually lands in the account, with the federal, state and FICA figures listed separately.
This calculator estimates take-home pay from the figures you enter. It does not produce employer-issued withholding and it is not a tax return.
Fill in the fields to see a result.
The generator opens with the state, pay frequency and year-to-date gross from above. A salary or an overtime period is not carried across as an hourly rate, so enter the real amounts there.
Which states and years this covers
Federal withholding follows the annual percentage-method schedules for the tax year you pick. State withholding uses that state's own published schedule for the same year, and where a state had not published one yet, the most recent published schedule is carried forward and the result says so by name.
Six jurisdictions are missing from the state list on purpose: Idaho, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee. Their revenue departments could not be reached while these sources were being checked, so the calculator offers no rate for them rather than one nobody verified.
How the figures are worked out
Gross comes first. An hourly period is the rate times the hours, plus any overtime hours at one and a half times that rate; a salaried period is the amount you enter. Pre-tax deductions are subtracted next, and what remains is the wage figure all three tax calculations work from.
Federal income tax uses the annual percentage-method schedule for your filing status in the tax year you selected, from Publication 15-T. The period's wages are annualised, the schedule is applied to the annual figure, and the result is brought back down to one period.
Social Security and Medicare are worked out against the year rather than the period. The gross you say was already paid earlier in the year is what tells the calculator how much of the Social Security wage base is used up, and where the Additional Medicare threshold for your filing status falls.
State income tax uses that state's own published schedule — a flat rate, a bracket table, or nothing at all where the state does not tax wages. Post-tax deductions come off last, after every tax, and what is left is the estimated take-home figure.
What this tool leaves out
- State standard deductions, personal exemptions, withholding allowances and state W-4 equivalents are not modelled, so a state figure is a rate applied to wages rather than a full state withholding calculation.
- City, county and school-district income taxes are not included. That matters most in Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, New York City, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Missouri.
- Credits are not modelled, and neither are the high-income add-ons: the Massachusetts surtax, the California Mental Health Services Tax, and the Washington tax on high adjusted gross income.
- Pre-tax deductions here reduce federal, state and FICA wages by the same amount. Real Section 125 and 401(k) treatment differs between the three, and between states.
- Overtime is priced at one and a half times the rate you enter. That is pay arithmetic, not a statement about who is entitled to overtime under federal or state law.
- The federal figure assumes a W-4 with no dependants claimed, no other income entered and no extra withholding requested.
- Amounts are in US dollars, and the calculation covers W-2 wages only.
Sources
Sources last reviewed Aug 17, 2026.
- IRS — Publication 15-T, Federal Income Tax Withholding MethodsThe annual percentage-method schedules behind the federal figure.
- IRS — Publication 15 (Circular E), Employer's Tax GuideSocial Security and Medicare rates, and the annual wage base table.
- SSA — Contribution and Benefit BaseThe Social Security wage base, from the agency that sets it.
- IRS — Topic no. 560, Additional Medicare TaxThe 0.9% rate and the filing-status thresholds where it starts.
Common questions
How do I calculate take-home pay?
Start with gross pay for the period and subtract pre-tax deductions. Work out federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and any state income tax on what remains, subtract those, then subtract post-tax deductions. This calculator does exactly that, in whole cents, from the figures you enter.
Is this the same as what my employer withholds?
No. An employer withholds from your actual W-4, your actual benefit elections and payroll software carrying its own year-to-date history. This is an estimate from the figures on this page, and it will differ from a real paycheck.
Why does the Social Security figure change when I enter a prior year-to-date total?
Social Security stops at an annual wage base. The gross already paid earlier in the year tells the calculator how much of that base is used up, so a later period in a high-earning year can show less Social Security than an earlier one, or none at all.
Which tax year does the calculator use?
The one you select. Federal schedules are the published ones for that year. Where a state had not published a schedule for the later year yet, the most recent published one is carried forward, and the result names the year the figure actually came from.
Why is my state missing from the list?
Six jurisdictions are left out because their revenue departments could not be reached when these sources were checked. Publishing an unverified rate under a review date would make that date untrue, so they are absent instead.