About US Paycheck Calculator
This site started with a question almost every worker asks at some point: "My salary is $75,000 — so why is my paycheck not $75,000 divided by 26?" The answer lives in a stack of federal brackets, state rules and payroll taxes that nobody explains on the pay stub itself. We built the calculator we wanted to use: one that shows every line, uses the current year's real rates, and treats each state as its own place instead of an afterthought.
How we calculate
Every figure comes from published sources for the 2026 tax year: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 for federal brackets and standard deductions, the Social Security Administration's wage base, and each state's own tax department for state rates, brackets and deductions. When a state changes its law mid-year — as Georgia did in 2026 — we update the rate and say what changed on that state's page.
What an estimate cannot see
A calculator like this gives a close estimate, not a payroll service. Your actual paycheck can move with your W-4, your benefits, garnishments and local taxes that vary town by town. Where a local tax exists that we do not calculate — Pennsylvania's EIT, Ohio's city taxes, the Yonkers surcharge — the state page tells you plainly instead of pretending the number is complete.
Why state by state?
Federal tax follows you everywhere — the same brackets in Maine as in Texas. State tax does not. Nine states take nothing from wages at all; Illinois takes a flat 4.95%; California's rates climb past 12% before its disability deduction takes another slice. A single national calculator with a state dropdown buries those differences. Here, every state gets its own page instead: its brackets, its deductions, its own worked examples, and its quirks in plain words — New York City's extra tax, Pennsylvania's town-level EIT, Ohio's school-district taxes. The state pages are published in batches, and a state only appears when its page is complete. We would rather be missing than vague.
What we are not
We are not the IRS, a tax firm or a payroll company, and nothing on this site is tax advice — the Disclaimer page says this in full. For filing, or anything with your name and a deadline on it, the official word sits with the IRS and your state's tax department. What we are is a checking tool: the place to test a job offer, a raise or a move before the first real stub arrives. And if you ever spot a rate here that looks wrong, tell us — corrections go to hello@uspaycheckcalculator.site and genuine fixes are folded into the calculator, not argued with.
Your numbers stay yours
The calculators run entirely in your browser. The salary you type is never sent to a server and never stored, and there is no account to create. US Paycheck Calculator is free and supported by advertising, so it can stay that way.