How to Calculate Your US Take-Home Pay (2026 Step-by-Step)

Your gross salary and your take-home pay are two very different numbers, and the gap between them is where most of the surprise lives. A $100,000 offer sounds like a lot until four layers of deductions — pre-tax retirement contributions, FICA, federal income tax, and state income tax — have each taken their slice. Knowing how to calculate take home pay before you accept a job (or negotiate a raise) is the difference between budgeting for reality and budgeting for a number that never arrives in your bank account.

This guide walks through the entire take home pay calculation for 2026, layer by layer, so you can reproduce it by hand or understand exactly what a take-home pay calculator is doing under the hood. We'll use a single worked example — a single filer earning $100,000 in California — and check it against our calculator to the cent.

What Is Take-Home Pay?

Take-home pay — also called net pay — is the money that actually lands in your bank account after every deduction and tax has been withheld from your gross wages. Where gross pay is the headline number you and your employer agree on, net pay is the number your budget actually has to work with. The process of moving from one to the other is often called the gross to net pay calculation.

Net pay vs gross pay isn't a small difference. On a typical $100,000 US salary, the gap can be $25,000 or more depending on your state and retirement choices. That's why "how much of my paycheck do I keep?" is one of the most useful questions you can ask before signing an offer — and why understanding each deduction layer matters.

What Comes Out of a US Paycheck

Four layers sit between your gross salary and your take-home pay. Each one is calculated differently, and getting the order right is the key to an accurate number.

1. Pre-tax deductions. Money you elect to redirect before tax is calculated — most commonly traditional 401(k) contributions and some pre-tax health premiums. These lower the income that federal and state tax brackets apply to, which is why a 401(k) contribution saves you income tax. They do not, however, lower FICA.

2. FICA tax. A flat payroll tax of 7.65% — 6.2% for Social Security (capped at the $184,500 wage base for 2026) plus 1.45% for Medicare (no cap). FICA is charged on your gross wages, including anything you defer into a 401(k). It's the most consistent deduction on any US payslip.

3. Federal income tax. Progressive 2026 brackets applied to your taxable income, which is gross minus the standard deduction ($16,100 for a single filer) minus pre-tax deductions. The more you earn, the higher the marginal rate on the last dollars — but only on those last dollars.

4. State income tax. The most variable layer. Nine states charge no wage income tax at all, while California tops out at 13.3%. Some states use flat rates, others use progressive brackets, and a few have their own standard deductions. This single layer can swing your take-home by thousands of dollars a year for the same gross salary.

Step-by-Step: How to Calculate Your Take-Home Pay

Here's the full take home pay calculation as a six-step workflow. Follow it in order — each step depends on the one before it.

1. 1

   Start with gross salary

   Your total wages before any deductions — the headline number on your offer letter.

2. 2

   Subtract pre-tax deductions

   Pre-tax 401(k) contributions and some health premiums reduce your federal and state taxable income — but not FICA.

3. 3

   Calculate FICA (7.65%) on gross wages

   Social Security (6.2% up to the $184,500 cap) plus Medicare (1.45%, no cap). FICA is charged on gross wages, even if you contribute to a 401(k).

4. 4

   Calculate federal income tax

   Apply the 2026 progressive brackets to your taxable income — gross minus the standard deduction ($16,100 single) minus pre-tax deductions.

5. 5

   Calculate state income tax

   Rates vary by state — from 0% in nine states up to 13.3% in California. Some states have flat rates, others use progressive brackets.

6. 6

   Take-home = gross − deductions − FICA − federal − state

   Whatever is left after all four layers is your actual net pay — the money that hits your bank account.

Worked Example: $100,000 in California

Let's put all six steps together for a single filer earning $100,000 in California in 2026, with no 401(k) contributions. FICA is 7.65% of the full $100,000 gross; federal income tax applies the 2026 brackets to a taxable income of $83,900 ($100,000 minus the $16,100 single standard deduction); and California's progressive brackets produce roughly $5,070 in state tax.

So the take-home pay calculation for this example comes out to $100,000 − $6,200 − $1,450 − $13,170 − $5,070 = $74,110. Our US Take-Home Pay Calculator computes this to the cent at $74,109.58 — the small rounding difference comes from California's bracket math being carried out to full precision.

How a 401(k) Changes the Math

The worked example above assumed no 401(k). Now imagine the same $100,000 single filer in California contributes $10,000 to a traditional pre-tax 401(k). The deductions layer behaves very specifically:

• FICA stays at $7,650 — it's charged on the full $100,000 gross, not the reduced taxable income. (See our FICA guide for why a 401(k) doesn't lower FICA.)
• Federal taxable income falls to $73,900 ($100,000 − $16,100 standard deduction − $10,000 401(k)), so federal income tax drops accordingly.
• California taxable income falls too, so state tax drops as well.
• Your cash take-home goes down, because $10,000 has left the paycheck and moved into your retirement account — even though your total tax bill is lower.

In other words, a 401(k) contribution is a trade: you give up some cash now to lower your tax bill and build retirement savings. The net paycheck shrinks, but not by the full $10,000 — part of that loss is offset by the income tax you no longer pay on the deferred amount. This is the nuance a good take-home pay calculator has to model, and it's why simply subtracting a flat "savings rate" from your gross never gives you the right answer.

Why Take-Home Varies So Much by State

State income tax is the single biggest source of take-home variation for the same gross salary. Move that $100,000 single filer from California to a no-income-tax state like Texas or Florida and roughly $5,070 of state tax disappears — same gross, same FICA, same federal tax, but a meaningfully bigger paycheck. Our States With No Income Tax guide lists all nine and explains the nuances (Washington's capital gains tax, New Hampshire's property taxes, and so on).

If you're comparing job offers across state lines, run both through a calculator that handles state tax properly — it's often the deciding factor in which offer actually pays more.

Calculate It Automatically

Walking through all six steps by hand is the best way to understand where your money goes — but you don't have to do it every time. Our US Take-Home Pay Calculator runs the full gross-to-net workflow for 2026, including the $184,500 Social Security cap, Additional Medicare Tax, the 2026 federal brackets, and state income tax for every US state. Enter your salary, pick your state and filing status, add any 401(k) contribution, and it reproduces the worked example above to the cent.

Related tools and guides

• US Take-Home Pay Calculator — runs all six steps automatically for your salary
• What Is FICA Tax? — why the 7.65% payroll tax isn't reduced by a 401(k)
• 2026 Federal Income Tax Brackets Explained — the progressive brackets applied at Step 4
• States With No Income Tax — where Step 5 disappears entirely

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. For advice specific to your situation, consult a qualified tax professional or visit irs.gov.