How to Calculate Your Take-Home Pay

Your gross salary and your take-home pay are rarely the same number. Between federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, state and local tax, and pre-tax deductions like 401(k) contributions, a meaningful chunk of every paycheck disappears before it ever hits your bank account. Knowing how to walk through that math yourself makes budgeting easier and removes the surprise from open enrollment, raises, and job offers.

Start with your annual gross

The cleanest way to think about take-home pay is to convert everything to an annual figure first, then divide by the number of pay periods at the end. If you're paid $5,000 twice a month, that's $120,000 a year ($5,000 × 24). If you're paid every other Friday, multiply by 26 instead.

Subtract pre-tax deductions

Pre-tax deductions come out before federal income tax is calculated, which is why they're so powerful. The most common ones are:

• 401(k) or 403(b) contributions (traditional, not Roth)
• Health, dental, and vision insurance premiums
• HSA and FSA contributions
• Commuter benefits

Add these up across the year and subtract them from your gross. The result is the income the IRS will actually tax.

Apply the standard deduction

For 2025, the federal standard deduction is $15,000 for single filers, $30,000 for married filing jointly, and $22,500 for head of household. Subtract whichever applies. What's left is your taxable income.

Walk through the federal brackets

Federal income tax is progressive — only the dollars inside each bracket are taxed at that bracket's rate. For a single filer earning $80,000 of taxable income in 2025, that means 10% on the first $11,925, 12% on the next chunk up to $48,475, and 22% on the rest. Add the pieces together; that's your federal income tax for the year.

Add FICA

FICA never cares about the standard deduction. Both halves apply to your wage income (gross minus pre-tax 401(k) and insurance, but before the standard deduction):

• Social Security: 6.2% on the first $176,100 of wages
• Medicare: 1.45% on every dollar, plus an extra 0.9% above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (joint)

Add state and local tax

State and local rates vary wildly. Nine states have no income tax at all; California's top bracket is over 13%. For estimation purposes, an effective flat rate against your taxable income is close enough. Look up your state's rate and apply it; do the same for any city or county tax.

Divide by your pay periods

Once you've added up federal income tax, FICA, state tax, and local tax, subtract them from your annual gross. Then subtract the annual cost of any post-tax deductions (Roth 401(k), some insurance riders). What's left is your annual net.

Divide that by 12, 24, 26, or 52 depending on your pay schedule. That's your take-home per paycheck.

A quick example

A single filer in a 5% state earning $90,000 with a 6% traditional 401(k) and $150/month in health insurance comes out to roughly $5,250 in 401(k), $1,800 in insurance, ~$10,500 in federal tax, ~$6,400 in FICA, and ~$3,600 in state tax — netting about $62,500 a year, or roughly $2,400 every two weeks.

Skip the math

If you'd rather just see the number, the Take-Home Pay Calculator does the entire walk-through above in one form. Punch in your salary, pay frequency, filing status, 401(k) percentage, and state rate, and it returns your per-paycheck net plus a full breakdown of every line item.