Gross Pay vs Net Pay: Where the Difference Goes
Your offer letter says $58,000. Your bank account sees roughly $45,000. This guide traces the five stops money makes between the two numbers.
Paycheck Calculator · Updated for 2025
Know exactly what lands in your bank account — before payday.
Enter your pay, and StubWhiz works out your federal tax, Social Security, Medicare, state tax and take-home pay for every paycheck — using the real 2025 IRS brackets, not a rough guess.
- ✓Hourly or salaried — weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly or monthly pay schedules.
- ✓All 50 states + DC — including the 9 states with no income tax at all.
- ✓Full breakdown, every time — see where every dollar went, per check and per year.
6Free calculators
51States covered
2025IRS brackets built in
$0Cost, forever
Paycheck Calculator
Estimates in real time as you type$/hr
hrs
%
$/yr
Your take-home pay — per paycheck
$0.00
—
Gross / year$0
Total tax / year$0
Net / year$0
Effective tax rate0%
Estimate only — your employer's payroll may differ slightly because of exact W-4 withholding tables, local city taxes, garnishments and benefit timing. Federal figures use 2025 IRS brackets and standard deductions; FICA uses the 2025 Social Security wage base of $176,100. This is an estimate for education only — not tax, financial or legal advice; verify important figures at IRS.gov or with a qualified professional. See how we calculate.
Calculator Suite
Six tools. Every pay question, answered.
The paycheck calculator above is the flagship — these five companions handle the questions workers ask next: overtime, bonuses, raises and converting between hourly and salary.
$/hr
hrs
wks
$/yr
Fill in the hourly side or type a salary — the table updates either way. Assumes paid weeks only; unpaid time off lowers the real figure.
What that pay really looks like
$52,000
gross per year
About the Hourly ⇄ Salary Converter
What it calculates. The same pay, expressed every way employers and workers actually use it: hourly, daily (8 hours), weekly, biweekly, monthly and annual. It converts in both directions — wage to salary, or salary back to the hourly rate it really represents.
How the calculation works
Annual pay = hourly rate × hours per week × paid weeks per year. Every other figure is that annual total divided down (weekly = ÷ weeks, monthly = ÷ 12). Going the other way, hourly rate = annual salary ÷ (hours × weeks). The one input people get wrong is "weeks": 52 assumes every week is paid, including holidays and vacation. If you take 3 weeks of unpaid leave, your real year is 49 weeks — enter 49 and the annual figure drops to the truth.
Worked example: $25/hour at 40 hours a week, paid all 52 weeks → $25 × 40 × 52 = $52,000 a year, which is $1,000 a week, $2,000 biweekly and $4,333.33 a month. Working backwards, a $52,000 salary offer for a 45-hour week is really $52,000 ÷ (45 × 52) = $22.22/hour — the extra five hours a week quietly cut the rate by nearly $3.
Limitations & common mistakes
- Gross, not take-home. This converts earnings before tax. To see what survives tax, run the annual figure through the Paycheck Calculator.
- Salaried ≠ hourly at the same total. A non-exempt hourly worker earns overtime on top; a salary figure usually bundles expected overtime in. Compare totals at the same hours.
- Monthly is not 4 weeks. A month averages 4.33 weeks. Multiplying a weekly wage by 4 understates annual pay by a full month over a year.
Converter FAQ
- How many work hours are in a year?
- A full-time 40-hour schedule is 2,080 hours (40 × 52) before holidays and leave; after typical US holidays and two weeks' vacation it is closer to 1,920–1,960 actually-worked hours.
- Is $30 an hour a good salary?
- At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks it is $62,400 gross a year. Whether that is "good" depends on your state tax, benefits and local costs — the Paycheck Calculator shows the after-tax picture for your state.
- Why does my monthly pay not equal 4 × my weekly pay?
- Because months are longer than 4 weeks. Annual ÷ 12 is the correct monthly figure; 4 × weekly quietly deletes about 4 weeks of pay per year.
Related guide: Biweekly vs Semi-Monthly: Same Salary, Different Life →
Disclaimer: results are estimates for education only and are not tax, financial or legal advice. Figures use tax year 2025 data from IRS.gov; verify important numbers with the IRS or a qualified professional.
$/hr
hrs
Federal rule (FLSA): non-exempt employees must be paid at least 1.5× their regular rate for every hour over 40 in a single workweek. Some states, like California, also require daily overtime after 8 hours in a day.
This week's gross pay
$0
About the Overtime Pay Calculator
What it calculates. Your gross pay for a week that includes overtime: the regular-hours pay, the overtime hours at 1.5× (time and a half) or 2× (double time), the week's total, and — the number most people never check — the premium, meaning the extra half (or whole) rate that overtime actually added.
How the calculation works
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), non-exempt employees earn at least 1.5× their regular rate for hours beyond 40 in one workweek. The tool splits your hours at the threshold you choose: hours up to the threshold × your rate, plus hours beyond it × rate × multiplier. Some states add daily rules — California, for example, pays overtime after 8 hours in a single day and double time after 12 — so the tool offers a daily mode that assumes a 5-day week. One subtlety the law insists on: the "regular rate" must include most non-discretionary bonuses and shift differentials, not just base pay, so a stub that calculates overtime on base pay alone may be underpaying you.
Worked example: $22/hour, 48 hours in the week, federal rule → 40 × $22 = $880 regular, plus 8 × $33 = $264 overtime = $1,144 gross. Had all 48 hours been paid straight, the check would be $1,056 — so the overtime premium in this week is exactly $88, the figure the tool shows separately.
Limitations & common mistakes
- Gross only. Tax is not deducted here; a heavy overtime week is also withheld as if you earned that pace all year, which is corrected at tax-return time (see the FAQ on our FAQ section).
- Averaging two weeks is not allowed. Employers may not average hours across a biweekly pay period to dodge overtime — each workweek stands alone under the FLSA.
- "Salaried" does not automatically mean exempt. Duties and pay level decide exemption, not the job title. If you are misclassified, this calculator shows what the hours were legally worth.
Overtime FAQ
- Can my employer give "comp time" instead of overtime pay?
- Private-sector employers generally cannot bank overtime as future time off in place of paying 1.5× in the period it was earned; comp time in lieu is mainly a public-sector arrangement.
- Is overtime taxed at a higher rate?
- No. There is no overtime tax bracket. Withholding on a big week can look heavier because payroll annualises that check, and any excess returns in your refund.
- What if my stub shows a different overtime rate?
- Divide the overtime line by the overtime hours. If the result is not at least 1.5× your regular rate (including differentials and bonuses in the rate), raise it with payroll in writing.
Related guide: Overtime Pay: Your Rights Under Federal Law →
Disclaimer: results are estimates for education only and are not tax, financial or legal advice. Employment-law summaries reflect the federal FLSA and cited state rules as of tax year 2025; verify your situation with your state labor agency or a qualified professional.
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Why bonuses feel "taxed more": they usually aren't — at tax-return time a bonus is taxed like any other income. Employers often withhold at the IRS supplemental flat rate of 22%, which can be higher than your normal rate, so the check looks smaller. Any over-withholding comes back as a refund.
You keep (estimate)
$0
About the Bonus Tax Calculator
What it calculates. What a bonus check actually deposits: the bonus minus federal withholding, Social Security, Medicare and an estimated state tax — with both IRS withholding methods shown, because which one your employer uses changes the size of the check (though never your final tax bill).
How the calculation works
The IRS treats bonuses as "supplemental wages". Paid as a separate check, federal withholding is a flat 22% (37% on the part of supplemental wages above $1 million in a year). Paid together with regular wages (the aggregate method), payroll withholds as if the combined amount were your normal pay — the tool approximates that with the 2025 single-filer brackets. FICA always applies: Social Security only until your year-to-date wages reach the $176,100 cap (which is why the tool asks what you have already earned), plus Medicare at 1.45% and the 0.9% high-earner surtax where it applies.
Worked example: a $5,000 bonus in Texas, $60,000 already earned, paid as a separate check → federal withholding $1,100 (22%), Social Security $310.00, Medicare $72.50, state tax $0 → you keep $3,517.50. If your real marginal rate turns out to be 12%, roughly $500 of that federal withholding comes back in your refund — it was a prepayment, not a penalty.
Limitations & common mistakes
- Withholding ≠ tax owed. The single most common bonus misunderstanding. Your return settles the bonus at your actual marginal rate; this tool estimates the check, not the final liability.
- The aggregate method is an approximation here. Real payroll annualises your combined check through the full W-4 withholding tables, so treat that mode as directional.
- 401(k) elections usually apply to bonuses too. Many plans deduct your usual percentage from bonus pay as well — a smaller deposit than this tool shows may simply mean more went into your retirement account.
Bonus FAQ
- Why was 22% taken when my tax rate is lower?
- Because 22% is the IRS flat withholding rate for separately-paid supplemental wages, regardless of your personal bracket. The difference is refunded (or reduces your balance due) when you file.
- Can I ask payroll to withhold less on my bonus?
- You cannot pick a special bonus rate, but a current, accurate W-4 affects the aggregate method, and increasing your pre-tax 401(k) percentage for the bonus period legally reduces the taxable amount.
- Do bonuses count toward the Social Security cap?
- Yes — they are wages. Once your year-to-date wages pass $176,100 (2025), the 6.2% stops applying, including to bonuses paid after that point.
Related guide: Why Your Bonus Check Looked So Small →
Disclaimer: results are estimates for education only and are not tax, financial or legal advice. Withholding rules and brackets are tax year 2025 figures from IRS.gov; verify with the IRS or a qualified professional.
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%
$
Type a percentage or the new salary — whichever you fill in last is the one used.
Your raise, in real money
$0
extra gross pay per year
About the Raise Calculator
What it calculates. A raise translated from a percentage — a number designed to sound small — into the money units a budget actually runs on: extra pay per year, per month and per paycheck, alongside your new salary and new per-check gross.
How the calculation works
New salary = current salary × (1 + raise %). The extra per paycheck is the annual increase divided by your number of pay periods (26 biweekly, 52 weekly, 24 semi-monthly, 12 monthly). Entered the other way — a new salary typed directly — the tool works backwards to the percentage, which is the honest way to evaluate an offer letter: a "$3,000 raise" on $55,000 is 5.45%, while the same $3,000 on $90,000 is 3.33%.
Worked example: $55,000 with a 4% raise → new salary $57,200. The increase is $2,200 a year = $183.33 a month = $84.62 extra per biweekly paycheck (gross), lifting each check from $2,115.38 to exactly $2,200.00.
Limitations & common mistakes
- Gross, before the tax bite. Your raise is taxed at your marginal rate, and percentage-based deductions (like a 5% 401(k)) grow with it — run the new salary through the Paycheck Calculator for the take-home version.
- Comparing percentages across bases. A 5% raise on a low base can be less money than 3% on a high one. Always convert to dollars per year before judging an offer.
- Forgetting the timing. A raise that starts in July is worth half its annual figure in year one. Prorate before planning annual spending around it.
Raise FAQ
- What is a typical annual raise?
- US employers commonly budget around 3–4% for annual merit increases in recent years, with promotions and job changes usually worth considerably more. Treat any single figure as context, not a rule.
- Does a raise change my tax bracket?
- Only the dollars above a bracket threshold are taxed at the higher rate — a raise can never make your total take-home pay go down through federal brackets alone.
- Should I raise my 401(k) when I get a raise?
- A common strategy is to add at least 1 percentage point of salary to retirement contributions at each raise, so saving grows without your lifestyle noticing the difference.
Related guide: Gross Pay vs Net Pay: Where the Difference Goes →
Disclaimer: results are estimates for education only and are not tax, financial or legal advice. Verify figures that matter with your employer or a qualified professional.
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Three-paycheck months: biweekly workers get 26 checks a year, so two months each year contain a third paycheck. In 2026 those bonus months land on the dates marked ★ below — budgeters call them "extra check months".
Your next paydays
$0
gross per paycheck
| # | Payday | Gross |
|---|
About the Pay Schedule Calculator
What it calculates. Your actual calendar of paydays: starting from your first payday of the year, it lists the next twelve weekly or biweekly paydays with the gross amount of each check, and flags the months that contain an extra check — the budgeting event biweekly workers get twice a year.
How the calculation works
Gross per check = annual salary ÷ pay periods (26 biweekly, 52 weekly). Paydays are then stepped forward 7 or 14 days at a time from the date you enter. A biweekly schedule produces 26 checks across 12 months, so exactly two months contain three paydays — the tool counts the full year and marks those months with a ★. Which months they are depends entirely on your first payday, which is why two coworkers on the same schedule can have different "extra check" months.
Worked example: $65,000 on a biweekly schedule = $2,500.00 gross per check. Budgeting on two checks a month covers $60,000 of the year; the two three-paycheck months deliver the remaining $5,000 — money that is part of the salary, but arrives as a lump worth planning for (annual insurance, debt payoff, holiday fund) instead of absorbing.
Limitations & common mistakes
- Holidays shift real paydays. When a payday lands on a bank holiday or weekend, most employers pay the business day before. The dates here are the unshifted schedule — check your employer's policy for exact deposit days.
- Semi-monthly is a different animal. Paid on fixed dates (e.g. the 15th and month-end), semi-monthly checks are larger and never create a three-check month. This tool covers weekly and biweekly schedules.
- The 27th-check year. Depending on which weekday payday falls on, a biweekly schedule occasionally produces 27 paydays in a calendar year — salaried staff usually still receive the same annual total, split differently.
Pay Schedule FAQ
- Why do I sometimes get three paychecks in a month?
- Because 26 biweekly checks cannot divide evenly into 12 months: ten months get two checks and two months get three. It is arithmetic, not a bonus.
- Is the third paycheck "extra" money?
- It is part of your normal annual salary arriving in a lump. It feels extra only if your monthly budget is built on two checks — which is exactly the habit worth keeping.
- When are the three-paycheck months in 2026?
- They depend on your first payday of the year. Enter it above and the ★ marks your two months precisely.
Related guide: Biweekly vs Semi-Monthly: Same Salary, Different Life →
Disclaimer: results are estimates for education only and are not tax, financial or legal advice. Verify your pay calendar with your employer's payroll department.
Pay Stub Guide
How to read your pay stub in two minutes
Every line on a real pay stub, decoded. The numbers below are a fully worked example for a biweekly worker earning $28/hour in Texas, in a period with 4 hours of overtime. This is his 22nd paycheck of 2025, and every figure reconciles: each year-to-date total is exactly the per-check amount × 22, and the federal line is the one our own calculator's published formula produces for this worker.
ACME LOGISTICS INC.
Earnings Statement
Earnings Statement
Pay date: Fri, Oct 31, 2025
Period: Oct 18 – Oct 31
Period: Oct 18 – Oct 31
Employee
| Jordan M. Alvarez — Warehouse Associate | Emp #4471 |
① Earnings
| Type | Hours | Rate | This period | Year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 80.00 | $28.00 | $2,240.00 | $49,280.00 |
| Overtime (1.5×) | 4.00 | $42.00 | $168.00 | $3,696.00 |
| Gross pay | $2,408.00 | $52,976.00 |
② Taxes withheld
| Federal income tax | $190.57 | $4,192.54 |
| Social Security (6.2%) | $146.43 | $3,221.46 |
| Medicare (1.45%) | $34.25 | $753.50 |
| State income tax (TX) | $0.00 | $0.00 |
③ Other deductions
| 401(k) — 5% pre-tax | $120.40 | $2,648.80 |
| Health insurance premium | $46.15 | $1,015.30 |
④ The bottom line
| NET PAY — deposited to checking ••3814 | $1,870.20 |
Check no. 008412 — the 22nd paycheck of 2025 · Teaching example, not a real employee record. The maths, so you can check it: annualised gross is $2,408 × 26 = $62,608; taxable income is $62,608 − $3,130.40 (401k) − $1,199.90 (health) − $15,000 (standard deduction) = $43,277.70, which the 2025 single brackets tax at $4,954.82 a year = $190.57 a check. FICA is charged on $2,408 − $46.15 = $2,361.85 a check. Net: $2,408.00 − $537.80 of taxes and deductions = $1,870.20.
- 1Earnings & gross pay
Every hour and rate that built this check. Gross pay is your pay before anything is taken out — always check hours and the overtime rate here first; most payroll mistakes live on this block.
- 2Taxes withheld
Federal income tax is estimated by your employer from your W-4 and the IRS tables — it is a prepayment, settled on your tax return. Social Security (6.2%, on wages up to $176,100 in 2025) and Medicare (1.45%, no cap) together are called FICA.
- 3Other deductions
Retirement contributions and insurance premiums. Pre-tax deductions (like a traditional 401(k)) are taken out before income tax — which is why they lower your taxable pay. Post-tax items, like a Roth 401(k) or a garnishment, come out after tax.
- 4Net pay
Gross minus all taxes and deductions = the amount that actually reaches your account. If this number ever surprises you, walk the three blocks above it in order — the answer is always in one of them.
- 5Year-to-date (YTD) columns
The running totals since January 1. Your YTD gross and federal withholding should match boxes 1 and 2 of the W-2 you receive in January — if they don't, ask payroll before you file.
Methodology
How StubWhiz calculates your pay
No black boxes. This is the exact maths behind every number on this page, and the official figures it is built from.
The formula, step by step
Gross pay − pre-tax deductions − federal tax − FICA − state tax − other deductions = NET PAY
- Gross pay: hourly rate × hours × 52 weeks, or your annual salary — then divided by your pay frequency.
- Taxable income: gross − pre-tax deductions (401(k), etc.) − the 2025 standard deduction for your filing status.
- Federal tax: taxable income pushed through the progressive 2025 brackets (table right) — each slice of income is taxed only at its own rate.
- FICA: Social Security 6.2% on wages up to $176,100 + Medicare 1.45% on all wages (+0.9% extra Medicare over $200,000 single / $250,000 married).
- State tax: a simplified flat-rate estimate per state (9 states are 0%). Real state withholding uses each state's own tables, credits and brackets, so treat this line as a close guide, not a quote.
Sources: IRS Revenue Procedure 2024-40 (2025 brackets & standard deductions), IRS Publication 15-T (withholding), Social Security Administration 2025 wage base announcement. Figures reviewed against the official publications.
2025 federal income tax brackets
| Rate | Single | Married filing jointly |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 – $11,925 | $0 – $23,850 |
| 12% | $11,925 – $48,475 | $23,850 – $96,950 |
| 22% | $48,475 – $103,350 | $96,950 – $206,700 |
| 24% | $103,350 – $197,300 | $206,700 – $394,600 |
| 32% | $197,300 – $250,525 | $394,600 – $501,050 |
| 35% | $250,525 – $626,350 | $501,050 – $751,600 |
| 37% | Over $626,350 | Over $751,600 |
| 2025 standard deduction | Amount |
|---|---|
| Single | $15,000 |
| Married filing jointly | $30,000 |
| Head of household | $22,500 |
Marginal ≠ effective: take the single worker on $58,240 in our calculator (5% 401(k), $1,200 of other pre-tax deductions). Their taxable income is $39,128, so their top slice is taxed at just 12% — the 22% bracket never comes into it — and their effective federal rate is about 7.7%. Add FICA and the total effective tax rate is 15.1%, which is the figure the calculator shows. The marginal rate is the one that applies to your next dollar; the effective rate is what you actually paid overall.
Worked example — the calculator's own default worker
So the flagship calculator can be checked end to end, here is its default case worked by hand: $28/hour, 40 hours a week, biweekly, single filer, Texas, 5% 401(k), $1,200/year of other pre-tax deductions.
- Gross: $28 × 40 × 52 = $58,240/year = $2,240.00 per check
- Taxable income: $58,240 − $2,912 (401k) − $1,200 − $15,000 standard deduction = $39,128 → federal tax $4,456.86/year = $171.42 per check
- FICA wages are $58,240 − $1,200 = $57,040 → Social Security $3,536.48/year ($136.02/check), Medicare $827.08/year ($31.81/check)
- Texas state tax: $0. Deductions per check: 401(k) $112.00, other $46.15
- Net: $1,742.60 per check — $45,308 a year. Type the defaults into the calculator and it returns exactly these figures.
Related reading: How to Read Your Pay Stub · What Is FICA? · How Federal Withholding Works
Limitations & the five common paycheck mistakes
- Using 52 weeks when you take unpaid leave. Every unpaid week removes a full week of gross — and of 401(k) contributions — from the year.
- Judging a job offer on gross. Two offers with the same salary in different states can differ by thousands in take-home. Always compare net, state by state.
- Treating withholding as the tax bill. Withholding is a prepayment set by your W-4; the return settles the difference. A big refund means the W-4, not the tax, was "wrong".
- Forgetting the Social Security cap. Past $176,100 of 2025 wages the 6.2% stops — a late-year rise in net pay is the cap working, not a payroll error.
- Confusing semi-monthly with biweekly. 24 checks are each ~8.3% larger than 26 checks on the same salary. Comparing per-check amounts across schedules misleads every budget built on it.
What this calculator cannot see: your exact W-4 elections beyond filing status, local city/county taxes, wage garnishments, post-tax deductions, employer-specific benefit timing, and mid-year changes. Where any of those apply, expect a real stub to differ — the line-by-line comparison in the Pay Stub Guide shows how to find where.
Guides Library
Plain-English guides to getting paid
Original, human-written explainers — the reading that turns a confusing pay stub into a document you fully control. Tap any guide to read it in full.
How Federal Withholding Actually Works (W-4 Explained)
Your employer doesn't guess your tax bill. They run a formula — and your W-4 is the instruction sheet. Here's how to read and fix it.
What Is FICA? The 7.65% on Every Paycheck
Social Security and Medicare together take 7.65% of almost every paycheck in America. What you get for it, and when part of it stops.
Biweekly vs Semi-Monthly: Same Salary, Different Life
26 checks or 24? The difference changes your monthly budget, creates two "extra paycheck" months a year, and confuses almost everyone once.
Why Your Bonus Check Looked So Small
A $5,000 bonus arrives as $3,600 and it feels like a 28% tax. It isn't — withholding and tax are two different things. Here's the full story.
Overtime Pay: Your Rights Under Federal Law
Time-and-a-half is not a perk — for most hourly workers it is a federal legal entitlement. Who qualifies, and how to check the maths.
Every guide is written by the StubWhiz Pay Desk and reviewed against its cited IRS or SSA source before publication. Guides are general education, not tax, financial or legal advice; figures are tax year 2025 unless a guide states otherwise — verify decisions that matter at IRS.gov or with a qualified professional.
State Calculators
Paycheck calculator by state
State tax changes everything about a paycheck. Pick your state and the main calculator loads with it selected. States marked 0% have no state income tax on wages.
Full state list, including every rate used, is inside the calculator's state menu. Local taxes (for example New York City's own income tax) are not included in these estimates.
Why there is no separate page for each state — deliberately
Fifty-one near-identical state pages that swap one tax table and nothing else are the classic thin-content pattern search engines reject. StubWhiz does the opposite: one rich calculator that handles every state properly, plus genuinely state-specific notes below for the states where a single rate hides something important — a local tax, a payroll premium, or a daily overtime rule. Each note links to that state's own revenue authority.
California
Progressive · 1% – 12.3% + 1.2% SDICalifornia's brackets climb steeply, and employees also pay 1.2% State Disability Insurance on all wages (no cap since 2024) — a line our single-rate state estimate does not include, so real CA checks land slightly below the estimate. California also requires daily overtime after 8 hours in a day; the Overtime tool has a daily mode for exactly this.
California Franchise Tax Board →New York
State 4% – 10.9% · NYC adds its own taxNew York State's brackets run from 4% to 10.9%, and New York City residents pay a separate city income tax (roughly 3.08%–3.88%) on top — the single biggest reason a real NYC paycheck is smaller than any state-only estimate, including ours. Yonkers adds a smaller surcharge of its own.
NYS Department of Taxation & Finance →Texas
0% — no state income taxTexas has no personal income tax at all, so a Texas paycheck carries only federal tax and FICA — which is why our worked pay-stub example is set here: every line on it can be checked against federal rules alone. The state funds itself mainly through sales and property taxes instead.
Texas Comptroller →Oregon
Among the highest · top rate 9.9%Oregon pairs some of the highest state income-tax rates in the country with no sales tax at all. Workers in the Portland metro area can also owe local taxes (such as the Metro supportive-housing tax) that a state-level estimate cannot capture — check your stub's local lines if you work there.
Oregon Department of Revenue →Washington
0% on wages · 0.58% WA Cares premiumWashington levies no tax on wage income — but since July 2023 most employees pay a 0.58% WA Cares payroll premium for the state's long-term-care fund, a real deduction that is not an income tax and is not in our state estimate. Washington does tax certain high-value capital gains, which never appear on a wage paycheck.
Washington Department of Revenue →Florida
0% — no state income taxFlorida is the most-searched zero-tax state after Texas: no state income tax, no city income taxes, so federal tax and FICA are the whole story on a Florida stub. Employers (not employees) pay Florida's reemployment tax, so it never appears as an employee deduction.
Authority: Florida Department of RevenueBecause a page per state that changes only one number is thin content — for readers and for search engines. Instead, the single Paycheck Calculator carries all 51 state settings with the full methodology published, and this section carries the state-specific details (local taxes, payroll premiums, daily overtime rules) that a bare rate table would hide. If your state has a quirk we have not covered, email us and we will add a note here.
Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming — nine states with no tax on wage income. Two cautions: Washington employees still pay the 0.58% WA Cares premium, and "no state tax" never removes federal tax or FICA.
Disclaimer: state figures are simplified estimates for education only, using tax year 2025 data; they are not tax, financial or legal advice. Always verify with your state's revenue authority (linked above) or a qualified professional.
FAQ
Paycheck questions, answered straight
For federal tax and FICA it uses the real 2025 IRS brackets, standard deductions and the Social Security wage base, so it lands within a few dollars of most payroll systems. The two things that can move your real check: exact employer withholding-table rounding, and state/local taxes, which we estimate with a simplified flat rate per state. Treat the result as a planning figure, then compare it line-by-line with your actual stub.
Usually timing: a partial first period (you started mid-cycle), benefits that begin on the 1st of the next month, or a pay lag where the first check covers fewer days. Run the calculator with the exact hours on your first stub — if the tax lines still don't match, your W-4 entries are the next place to look.
Nine states levy no tax on wage income: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. (New Hampshire and Tennessee previously taxed investment income only, and both have fully phased that out.) Remember that "no state tax" doesn't mean no deductions — federal tax and FICA still apply in full.
Your marginal rate is the bracket your last dollar falls into — say 22%. Your effective rate is total tax ÷ total income, and it is always lower, because the standard deduction shelters the first chunk entirely and lower slices are taxed at 10% and 12% first. When deciding about extra income (overtime, a side job), the marginal rate is the one that applies to the new dollars.
No special overtime tax exists. What happens is a withholding illusion: payroll annualises that one fat check, withholds as if you earned that much all year, and the extra comes back at tax-return time if it overshot. Your overtime dollars are ultimately taxed at the same marginal bracket as regular dollars — plus, the pre-tax 401(k) percentage you set applies to them too.
Weekly: 52. Biweekly: 26 (which creates two three-paycheck months). Semi-monthly: 24. Monthly: 12. In some years a weekly or biweekly schedule produces a 53rd or 27th check, depending on which weekday payday falls on — the Pay Schedule tool lists your actual dates.
Yes — submit a new IRS Form W-4 to your employer at any time. Add dependents or deductions to withhold less, or use line 4(c) to add a fixed extra amount per check. Never claim "exempt" unless you genuinely meet both IRS conditions; under-withholding leads to a bill plus possible penalties.
No. Every StubWhiz calculator runs entirely in your browser on this page. Nothing you type is transmitted, stored in an account, or written to a database — close the tab and it is gone. The optional "Download breakdown" file is generated on your own device.
About StubWhiz
Built so no worker has to guess at their own pay.
StubWhiz started with a simple frustration: pay stubs are written in payroll-department language, and most "calculators" online hide their maths, drown you in ads before showing a number, or quietly use tax tables from three years ago. We built the opposite — every tool free with no sign-up, every formula published, every figure tied to a current IRS or SSA source.
Our editorial rule is strict: a guide is published only when a second person has re-checked every number in it against the official publication it cites. When the IRS issues new brackets each autumn, the calculators and the bracket tables are updated together — never one without the other.
Who writes and reviews StubWhiz — the Pay Desk. Every article and calculator on this site carries one byline: the StubWhiz Pay Desk, our named editorial desk for pay and tax content. The Pay Desk writes in plain English, shows its formula for every number, and re-checks each figure against the primary source — IRS.gov publications for federal figures, SSA announcements for FICA, state revenue authorities for state notes — before anything is published. Corrections sent by readers go to the same desk and are published openly. StubWhiz is an independent educational site: we are not the IRS, not a payroll company, and not affiliated with any government agency or with Google.
- Figures sourced from IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-40, Publication 15-T and SSA announcements
- Every calculator works without an account, email address or download
- Guides written and reviewed by humans; corrections are published, not hidden
- Estimates are labelled as estimates — we never present a projection as your exact payroll result
StubWhiz at a glance
| Flagship tool | Paycheck Calculator |
| Companion tools | 5 more calculators |
| Coverage | 50 states + DC |
| Tax year built in | 2025 (federal) |
| Guides library | 6 in-depth guides |
| Cost | Free |
| Data handling | 100% in-browser |
| Written & reviewed by | The StubWhiz Pay Desk |
Spotted an error, or want a calculator we don't have yet? Write to us — reader corrections are how this site stays accurate.
✉ hello@stubwhiz.com