Pay raise take-home calculator

Calculate what your raise actually adds to your paycheck

2026 ESTIMATE. Federal tax from the 2026 brackets and standard deduction (IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32). FICA uses the 2026 Social Security wage base of $184,500 (SSA) and the fixed Additional Medicare Tax thresholds. State tax is a flat rate you enter, since a real state bill depends on that state's own brackets. Excludes local/city income tax, pre-tax deductions (401(k), HSA, traditional premiums), and credits.

How much of your raise do you actually keep?

You keep less than the full raise because the raise is added on top of your existing salary, not taxed on its own from zero. In the default example above, a $70,000 single filer getting a $10,000 raise sees take-home pay rise by only $7,035, about 70.3% of the raise. The rest, $2,965, goes to federal income tax and FICA (state tax adds more on top in most states). This is normal and expected. It is not a sign the raise was "wasted" or that something went wrong with payroll.

Why is a raise taxed at your marginal rate, not your average rate?

Every dollar you already earn fills up your tax brackets from the bottom, so a new raise stacks on top and lands in whichever bracket your existing income has already reached, usually your highest one. Your marginal rate is the rate on that next dollar. Your average (effective) rate is your total tax divided by your total income, and it is always lower than your marginal rate because it blends in the lower rates you paid on your first dollars. A raise is taxed at the marginal rate because it is, by definition, the newest and topmost slice of income you earn. See the full 2026 federal tax brackets for how the marginal system works and where each bracket starts.

Does a raise ever push you into a higher bracket and leave you with less money?

No. This is a common myth, and it is false. Because federal brackets are marginal, crossing into a higher bracket only raises the rate on the income above that bracket's threshold, never on the dollars you already earned. A raise can never shrink your paycheck. At worst, a small slice of the raise gets taxed at a higher rate than the rest of your income, which is exactly what "marginal" means. You always come out ahead in dollar terms after a raise, just not by the full sticker amount.

How much of a raise goes to FICA?

FICA (Social Security and Medicare) takes 7.65% of most raises: 6.2% Social Security plus 1.45% Medicare. This is flat and non-negotiable, applied the same regardless of your filing status. The 6.2% Social Security portion stops once your total wages for the year cross the $184,500 wage base for 2026, so a raise that pushes you over that line stops owing the Social Security share on the portion above it (though the 1.45% Medicare share has no cap and never stops). High earners also owe an extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000 (single, head of household, married filing separately) or $250,000 (married filing jointly). See the FICA table and full mechanics on the take-home pay calculator.

Does state tax take a bigger bite out of a raise?

In the 41 states with a state income tax, yes, state tax adds another layer on top of federal tax and FICA. Most states with a flat rate tax the raise at that same flat rate. States with their own graduated brackets work like the federal system: the raise stacks on top of your existing state income and is taxed at whatever bracket it reaches there too. Nine states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) charge no state income tax on wages, so a raise in those states loses nothing to state tax. Enter your own state's effective rate in the calculator above; find it on the take-home pay calculator or your state's own income tax page.

Worked example: $70,000 salary, $10,000 raise, single filer, 2026

Here is the full math behind the default numbers above, with no state tax.

Take-home pay rises by $7,035, not the full $10,000. That works out to keeping about 70.3% of the raise, because this slice of income sits in the 22% federal bracket and also owes the full 7.65% FICA rate, for a combined marginal rate near 29.6% on the raise itself, well above this filer's 17.0% overall effective rate before the raise.

What is the difference between the tax rate on a raise and your overall effective tax rate?

Your overall effective rate is your total tax for the year divided by your total income, an average across every bracket your income has passed through. The tax rate on a raise is the marginal rate on that specific new slice of income, plus FICA. Because a raise always lands at or near the top of your existing income, its tax rate is almost always higher than your overall effective rate, sometimes much higher. That gap is exactly why a raise's take-home percentage feels smaller than "your" tax rate: the raise is being measured against a tougher, narrower standard, the top of your income stack, not the blended average across all of it.

Does this calculator account for 401(k) contributions or other pre-tax deductions?

No. This tool estimates tax on gross salary before any pre-tax payroll deductions. If part of a raise goes into a traditional 401(k), HSA, or pre-tax health premium, less of it is subject to federal (and usually state) income tax, which changes the numbers above. Note that 401(k) and HSA contributions do not reduce wages subject to Social Security and Medicare tax, only income tax, so the FICA share of a raise is the one number here that a pre-tax contribution cannot lower.

The flat truth: a raise is real money, just not the full sticker number

A raise never leaves you worse off, and the myth that a bracket bump can shrink your paycheck is false. But the honest number is the marginal, after-tax one, not the headline dollar figure your employer announces. A raise stacks on top of the income you already earn, so it is taxed at your highest bracket plus the full 7.65% FICA rate, plus state tax where it applies, which is why a $10,000 raise commonly nets somewhere around $6,500 to $7,500 in real take-home pay for a middle-income earner. Run your own numbers above before you decide what a raise, or a counteroffer, is actually worth to your budget.