Start with gross earnings
Gross pay is what you earn before employee deductions and taxes. If you work for $25 an hour for 40 hours each week, weekly gross pay is $1,000. Under a simple full-year assumption, that works out to $52,000 a year. If you are offered an annual salary of $72,000, a biweekly check represents roughly $2,769.23 before taxes and deductions because there are 26 two-week periods in a standard year.
Hourly calculations also need to account for overtime when applicable. Someone paid $25 an hour who works five overtime hours at time-and-a-half earns another $187.50 that week. Overtime laws and eligibility vary; in the calculator, you choose the extra hours and multiplier instead of having the site assume all additional hours qualify.
Separate pre-tax deductions from taxes
Employer benefits and retirement contributions may be taken out before certain taxes are calculated. A traditional 401(k) salary deferral typically reduces wages subject to federal income tax, but usually does not reduce Social Security and Medicare wages. A qualifying pre-tax benefit under a Section 125 plan can often reduce both federal income-taxable wages and FICA wages. Your employer's plan documents determine actual treatment.
For example, if a $2,000 gross check includes a $100 traditional 401(k) contribution and a $75 qualifying Section 125 deduction, the simplified federal income-tax wage base can fall to $1,825. The simplified FICA wage base would be $1,925, because the 401(k) amount is still generally subject to those taxes. This distinction matters when checking a paystub.
Estimate federal income tax
Federal income tax is progressive. Your entire income is not taxed at a single rate. For a simplified annual estimate, subtract the modeled pre-tax deductions and the filing-status standard deduction from projected wages, then calculate the tax owed across the 2026 brackets. King Calculators uses this method rather than claiming to run the full employer withholding procedure.
Consider a single employee earning $52,000 in 2026 with no modeled pre-tax deductions or other income. The 2026 basic standard deduction for a single filer is $16,100, leaving $35,900 of modeled taxable income. The first $12,400 falls in the 10% bracket, and the remaining $23,500 falls in the 12% bracket. That produces a simplified regular federal income-tax estimate of $4,060 for the year, before credits or other adjustments. Actual withholding may be different.
Subtract the employee's FICA taxes
FICA generally includes Social Security at 6.2% of covered employee wages up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026, and Medicare at 1.45% of applicable wages without a general cap. Employers also contribute their own shares, but the employer shares are not subtracted from your employee pay twice. For high wages, a separate 0.9% Additional Medicare withholding starts when an employer pays an employee more than $200,000 in Medicare wages in a calendar year.
Include state and local withholding and after-tax deductions
State and local paycheck deductions are highly location-specific. They may depend on the state where you work, the state where you live, municipality, local payroll programs, and withholding forms. King Calculators intentionally does not invent a rate. You can enter an expected dollar withholding amount per paycheck if you know it from an employer estimate or existing paystub.
After-tax deductions can include optional benefit premiums or other payroll items. These reduce the dollars received but do not generally reduce taxable wages in the same way as qualifying pre-tax benefits.
Check the pay frequency
An annual total can be distributed across weekly (52), biweekly (26), twice-monthly (24), monthly (12), or annual (1) pay cycles. Two pay schedules can have the same annual compensation while producing very different checks. Compare annual take-home as well as take-home per check.
A useful next step
Try one estimate using the figures on a recent paystub. Compare gross pay, federal withholding, FICA, and benefits line by line. When a value differs, look for differences in W-4 elections, the tax treatment of benefit deductions, supplemental pay, or year-to-date tax thresholds. See our paystub glossary for a more detailed walkthrough.
Sources and further reading: IRS 2026 inflation adjustments, IRS Publication 15-T, and Social Security Administration 2026 fact sheet.