Washington Paycheck Calculator 2026

How this calculator works

Washington is one of nine states that does not tax wage income, so there is no state line on your paystub the way there is in Oregon or California. What remains is federal withholding, the two federal payroll taxes, and two state programs that are funded directly out of employee wages.

The calculator applies five deductions, in this order:

• Federal income tax. Your gross pay minus the standard deduction for your filing status, run through the 2026 federal brackets. For 2026 the standard deduction is $16,100 for a single filer, $32,200 for married filing jointly, and $24,150 for head of household.
• Social Security at 6.2% of gross wages, up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500. Earnings above that are not subject to it.
• Medicare at 1.45% of all wages, with no cap, plus the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000.
• WA Paid Family and Medical Leave. The 2026 premium is 1.13% of gross wages, of which employees pay 71.43% — an effective employee rate of 0.807%, capped at the same $184,500 wage base.
• WA Cares at 0.58% of gross wages, with no wage cap at all. This is the deduction that surprises high earners most.

Rates come directly from the agencies that set them: the IRS for federal brackets, the standard deduction and FICA; the Washington State Employment Security Department for the Paid Leave premium; and the WA Cares Fund for the long-term care premium. Every figure was verified on August 22, 2026. Our full sourcing is on the methodology page.

What the calculator deliberately does not do: it does not itemize deductions, apply tax credits, model multiple jobs, or account for health insurance premiums and other employer benefit deductions. Those are personal to your W-4 and your benefits election, and guessing at them would make the number look precise while being wrong.

Many of the people asking this question are paid by the hour, not by the year. The calculator above takes an hourly rate directly — switch How often you are paid to Per hour, tell it how many hours a week you actually work, and it will show your take-home pay per hour, per week or per year.

Washington has no state income tax, so most of the gap between your gross rate and your net rate is federal. But two state programs still come out of every hour you work: Paid Family and Medical Leave at 0.807% and WA Cares at 0.58%. Together they take about 1.4% off the top, before federal tax touches anything.

On $25 an hour that is roughly $721 a year. Small in percentage terms, and the reason the same rate nets $20.79 here against $21.14 in Nevada.

Why we ask your hours instead of assuming 2,080

Most hourly calculators multiply your rate by 2,080 and call it your salary. That number assumes exactly 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, with no unpaid time off and no slow weeks — which is precisely what hourly work often is not. At 35 hours a week the same rate produces a materially smaller annual figure, and sometimes a lower tax bracket with it. We ask rather than assume.

What $20 an hour comes to in Washington

At 40 hours a week, $20 an hour is $35,029 a year after tax, or about $2,919.05 a month. Your effective rate is 15.8%, and your real take-home rate is $16.84 an hour. That is the number worth carrying in your head when you are comparing job offers.

What $25 and $30 an hour come to

At $25 an hour you take home about $43,241 a year, a real rate of $20.79. At $30 it is $51,453, a real rate of $24.74. Notice that a $5 raise on paper is worth less than $5 in your pocket — that is progressive taxation doing exactly what it is designed to do.

Overtime, tips and shift differentials

For withholding purposes, overtime, reported tips and shift or holiday differentials are ordinary wages: your employer withholds federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare on them exactly as on your base rate. A big overtime week can even push that single paycheck into a higher withholding band, which is why it sometimes looks disappointing on the stub. Enter your realistic average hours, including overtime, for the most useful figure.

One Washington quirk worth knowing: Paid Leave and WA Cares are charged on gross wages, so they come out of overtime and reported tips at the same rate as your base hours. A heavy overtime month costs you a little more in state programs as well as in federal tax.

For what you finally owe, 2026 is different, and this calculator does not model it. Two deductions created by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill run from 2025 through 2028:

• Qualified tips — up to $25,000 a year deductible, for people in occupations that customarily and regularly receive tips.
• Qualified overtime — up to $12,500 a year ($25,000 filing jointly). It covers only the premium half of time-and-a-half required by the Fair Labor Standards Act, not the whole overtime paycheck.

Both phase out above $150,000 of modified adjusted gross income ($300,000 filing jointly), and both are available whether you itemize or take the standard deduction. They are claimed on your return, on Schedule 1-A — not through your paycheck. So the figure above still reflects what comes out during the year; if a meaningful part of your pay is tips or FLSA overtime, your final tax bill may be lower than it implies. Source: IRS, Working Families Tax Cuts, read August 27, 2026.

What this calculator does not cover

This tool models federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and the payroll programs your state actually runs — nothing more. It deliberately leaves out:

• Itemized deductions and federal tax credits — the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, education credits. The engine always applies the standard deduction; there is no itemizing path.
• A second job, self-employment income or 1099 pay. Every dollar you enter is treated as one employer’s W-2 wages, taxed at the employee share of Social Security and Medicare — not the self-employment tax a 1099 worker actually owes.
• Pre-tax benefits other than the 401(k) field — health insurance premiums, an HSA or FSA, commuter benefits. The only amount taken out before tax is the percentage you enter for a 401(k).
• Local taxes — city income tax, county tax, or a school-district tax. Where a state levies one, our methodology page says so by name; this calculator does not add that line, with two exceptions: the Indiana and Maryland calculators add the local income tax for the county you choose.
• Overtime premiums. An hourly rate is multiplied by the hours you enter; it does not add a time-and-a-half rate for hours worked past 40 in a week.
• Wage garnishments or court-ordered deductions — child support, a wage levy. Your result assumes none exist.
• The Additional Medicare Tax, at the single-filer threshold. The 0.9% surtax above $200,000 is applied at that one figure for every filing status, the way an employer actually withholds it — not the higher threshold a married couple filing jointly may end up owing at tax return time.
• Married filing separately, or a qualifying surviving spouse. The calculator only offers single, married filing jointly, and head of household.

None of these are in the estimate. Some of them change what you owe or get back when you file, and a calculator cannot ask for everything they depend on. See why your pay stub will differ for the details.

Key facts that affect your take-home pay in Washington

No state income tax is worth more than most people assume

A single filer earning $100,000 keeps about $77,793 in Washington. The same salary in a state with a 5% flat income tax would lose roughly $4,200 more. Over a decade that difference buys a car.

The Social Security cap makes your effective rate fall, not rise, past $184,500

Once your wages pass the 2026 wage base, the 6.2% stops. It is the one point where earning more money genuinely lowers your marginal payroll burden — which is why the effective rate in the table above climbs steeply to $150,000 and then flattens.

WA Cares has no cap, and that is unusual

Every other line on a Washington paystub either caps out or is federal. WA Cares takes 0.58% of every dollar, forever. On $200,000 that is $1,160 a year. Workers who bought qualifying private long-term care insurance before the deadline could apply for an exemption; if you hold one, uncheck the box in the calculator.

Washington has no local income taxes either

Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma do not levy a city wage tax, so your ZIP code does not change the arithmetic. This is not true in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or New York City, where local tax can be several percent.

The trade-off is on the other side of the ledger

Washington funds itself with a sales tax that runs above 10% in much of the Puget Sound region, and with property taxes. A high earner comes out well ahead; the picture is less lopsided for someone spending most of what they earn.

What the two state programs actually cost you

Paid Family and Medical Leave is a 1.13% premium in 2026, of which employees pay 71.43% — an employee rate of 0.807159%, charged on wages up to the Social Security cap of $184,500. WA Cares adds 0.58% with no cap. On a $75,000 salary that is $605.37 and $435.00, or $1,040 a year between them. That figure is the entire practical difference between a Washington paycheck and a Nevada or Texas one.

Your effective rate is lower than your bracket

Being “in the 22% bracket” does not mean 22% of your income goes in tax. Only the dollars above the bracket threshold are taxed at that rate. On $75,000 in Washington the total bite — federal tax, FICA, Paid Leave and WA Cares together — is 19.3%.

Common mistakes people make

Comparing gross salaries across state lines

A $95,000 offer in Seattle and a $95,000 offer in Portland are not the same offer. Oregon's top marginal rate reaches 9.9%, and the Portland metro adds its own taxes on top. Compare take-home, not headline.

Forgetting that WA Cares and Paid Leave are not taxes you get back

They are insurance premiums. Nothing is refunded at filing time, and they do not appear as withholding on your federal return.

Assuming a bonus is taxed at a higher rate

Supplemental wages are usually withheld at a flat 22% federally, which is often more than your actual marginal rate. The excess comes back when you file. The bonus was never taxed at a penalty rate — it was over-withheld.

Entering take-home pay instead of gross

The single most common reason a calculator result looks wrong. The first field wants the number before anything is taken out.

Ignoring the 401(k) lever

Contributions reduce federal taxable income but not FICA, Paid Leave, or WA Cares. Putting 10% into a 401(k) on a $100,000 salary cuts roughly $2,200 from federal tax while leaving the state programs untouched. Try it in the calculator above.

Example calculation

Take a single filer in Tacoma earning $75,000 a year in 2026, with no retirement contribution. Here is every step.

Federal income tax. Taxable income is $75,000 minus the $16,100 standard deduction, or $58,900. That is taxed in three slices: 10% on the first $12,400 = $1,240; 12% on the next $38,000 (from $12,400 to $50,400) = $4,560; 22% on the remaining $8,500 (from $50,400 to $58,900) = $1,870. Federal tax is $7,670. Note that the 22% applies only to that last $8,500 — not to the whole salary.

Social Security. $75,000 is below the $184,500 wage base, so the full salary is taxed at 6.2% = $4,650.

Medicare. 1.45% of $75,000 = $1,087.50. The salary is below $200,000, so no Additional Medicare Tax applies.

WA Paid Family and Medical Leave. 0.807% of $75,000 = $605.37.

WA Cares. 0.58% of $75,000 = $435.

The result. Total withholding is $14,447.87, leaving take-home pay of $60,552.13 a year — $5,046.01 a month, or $2,329.00 every two weeks. The effective rate is 19.3%, even though the top marginal federal bracket touched is 22%.

Frequently asked questions

What is $20 an hour after taxes in Washington?

About $35,029 a year, or $2,919.05 a month, at 40 hours a week for a single filer in 2026. That is a real take-home rate of $16.84 an hour, an effective rate of 15.8 percent, after federal tax, FICA, WA Paid Leave and WA Cares.

Does Washington have a state income tax?

No. Washington is one of nine states with no personal income tax on wages. Your paycheck still has federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, WA Paid Family and Medical Leave, and in most cases WA Cares withheld. A capital gains excise tax exists on certain long-term gains above a threshold — 7% up to $1 million in gains and 9.9% above that, since 2025 — but it does not touch wage income.

What is take-home pay on a $75,000 salary in Washington?

About $60,552 a year, or roughly $5,046 a month, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Total withholding is about $14,448, an effective rate of 19.3%.

What is the WA Cares deduction on my paycheck?

WA Cares is Washington's long-term care program. Employees pay 0.58% of gross wages with no wage cap. On a $75,000 salary that is $435 a year, about $36.25 a month. It buys a lifetime benefit for long-term care costs, subject to vesting rules.

Does Washington tax capital gains?

Yes, and this is where Washington differs from the other no-income-tax states. A capital gains excise tax applies to certain long-term gains above a threshold — 7% up to $1 million in gains and 9.9% above that, since 2025. It does not touch wage income, so it never appears on your paycheck. Texas, by contrast, wrote a ban on any capital gains tax into its constitution in November 2025.

What does Washington withhold that Nevada and Texas do not?

Two things, both state programs rather than taxes: Paid Family and Medical Leave and WA Cares. Together they take about $1,040 a year from a $75,000 salary. Neither Nevada nor Texas has an equivalent, which is why their paychecks are slightly larger on the same gross pay.

Why is my Washington paycheck smaller than the calculator says?

Usually health insurance premiums, retirement contributions beyond what you entered, or a W-4 that does not match your situation — for example a second job, or a spouse who also works. This calculator covers taxes and state payroll programs, not employer benefit deductions, which vary by employer.

Compare with neighboring states

Washington's advantage only shows up in comparison. These are the states people actually weigh it against:

• Oregon — no sales tax, but a state income tax reaching 9.9%. The mirror image of Washington.
• Idaho — a flat state income tax, lower cost of living.
• California — the most common relocation comparison for tech workers, and the largest gap.
• Nevada — also no income tax, and without Washington's Paid Leave and WA Cares premiums.
• Texas — no income tax, higher property tax.

Calculators for these states are being written. Each one needs its own rates read from that state's own agency before it goes live — see the state index.

Sources

Every figure on this page is read from an official document and dated, not taken from another calculator — the federal ones from the IRS and the Social Security Administration, the Washington ones from the state’s own document below. Each one carries the date we last checked that it still answers. If one of our numbers disagrees with one of theirs, they are right and we have a defect to fix — tell us.

The documents these figures are read from

• Washington Employment Security Department — 2026 Paid Leave premium — the 1.13% premium behind the Paid Leave line on a Washington pay stub.
• IRS — 2026 inflation adjustments (Rev. Proc. 2025-32) — the federal brackets and the $16,100 standard deduction.
• IRS — Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates — the 6.2% and 1.45% rates and the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax.
• SSA — Contribution and benefit base — the $184,500 Social Security wage base.

The agencies that set them

These are the offices that set the figures. We link them so you can start from the source yourself, but an agency’s own summary page is not always current, and we do not claim that these pages carry the 2026 number — several of them do not. Where a rate was read somewhere else, in a statute, a withholding guide or an estimated-tax form, the exact document and the date we read it are on our methodology page.

• Washington Department of Revenue.

All links checked September 30, 2026.

Related reading

• Paycheck calculators by state — the full index, including which states have no income tax at all.
• Washington salary to hourly — what an annual salary is worth per hour in Washington, after tax and not just before.
• Methodology — the exact formula, every 2026 figure with its official source, and what these calculators deliberately do not model.
• Why your pay stub will differ — pre-tax deductions, credits and W-4 settings, and how much difference is normal.

Bonus, hourly and federal-only calculators are on the way.