About WageCalculator

WageCalculator.app is a free United States paycheck estimator. It is built for people who want to see, in one place, how federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare come off a check — and what happens when filing status or W-4 dependents change. There is no account, no payroll file upload, and no saved wage history. The math runs in the browser on the page you opened.

This is an educational tool, not a replacement for a payroll vendor, a CPA, or the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator. It will not match a stub that includes state tax, 401(k), health premiums, or extra withholding. That gap is intentional: the federal pieces stay readable instead of being buried in a full payroll simulation.

What the calculator actually does

You enter a pay amount (annual salary or one check), how often you are paid, a filing status, and dependent counts that map to Form W-4 Step 3. The page annualizes wages, subtracts the 2026 standard deduction for that status, applies federal brackets, subtracts a simple dependent credit, then adds Social Security and Medicare using 2026 employee rates. It divides the annual result back into a per-check take-home number.

Payroll departments do something related but not identical. They follow IRS Publication 15-T percentage-method tables, your actual Form W-4 (including multiple jobs and extra withholding), and pre-tax benefits that reduce wages before tax. If those extra pieces exist on your stub, this site will overstate federal tax or understate take-home. Use it to see direction — more dependents, weekly versus monthly pay, single versus married jointly — not as a dollar-for-dollar stub clone.

A second worked example

Take $72,000, married filing jointly, one child under 17, paid biweekly. Annualize is $72,000. Subtract the $32,200 joint standard deduction. Taxable is $39,800. Brackets apply. A $2,200 dependent credit comes off the annual income tax (this site does not phase that credit out). Divide by 26 for the federal line. Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to the 2026 wage base; Medicare is 1.45%. Adding a second child should move federal tax and leave FICA still. Switching the same person to single should raise federal tax because the standard deduction and brackets change. Run those cases on the calculator and read the separate lines, not only net.

What it does not include

State or local income tax.
Pre-tax 401(k), HSA, FSA, or health insurance premiums.
Garnishments, union dues, or after-tax benefits.
Self-employment tax (employees see employee-share FICA only).
Bonuses paid on a supplemental wage method.
W-4 Step 2 multiple jobs and Step 4 extra withholding.

Guides on this site

Related tools from the same publisher: MyLoanCalculator.app and BoatCost.app. Privacy: privacy page. Email: contact.