Pennsylvania Paycheck Calculator
United States Uses United States federal and state tax and payroll rules. Updated
PA paycheck calculator for 2026: federal withholding, FICA, Pennsylvania’s flat income tax and a line for Philadelphia or other local wage tax.
Educational estimate only. Not tax, legal, payroll, accounting, insurance, or financial advice. Consult a qualified authority before acting on a result.
Results
How to read this: the verdict describes how much room your numbers leave, not a decision or an offer. Change any input to see how much the result moves.
Paycheck guides
These guides explain the payroll concepts behind the calculator and link back to the specific paycheck tools for testing scenarios.
- How to calculate take-home pay
- Gross pay vs net pay
- How federal withholding works
- Salary vs hourly paycheck
- Bonus paycheck tax explained
For all guide topics, open Guides. For source and estimate boundaries, read Calculation Methodology and Sources and Assumptions.
When this calculator fits
Use this page when a Pennsylvania paycheck needs federal withholding, FICA, the flat Pennsylvania personal income tax and clear handling for Philadelphia wage tax or another local rate. As a Pennsylvania salary calculator it shows the state and local lines apart, which matters here more than in most states, because two people on the same salary can take home different amounts depending on the municipality.
How to use this Pennsylvania paycheck calculator
Use this Pennsylvania paycheck calculator for a U.S. paycheck estimate with federal withholding, FICA, deductions, and supported Pennsylvania PIT handling with Philadelphia wage-tax support.
It also addresses related questions around Pennsylvania paycheck calculator, paycheck calculator PA, PA paycheck calculator, paycheck calculator for PA, and Philadelphia wage tax paycheck intent. The terms are grouped by the job a visitor is trying to complete, so the page stays readable instead of repeating the same phrase in different forms.
What matters for Pennsylvania paychecks
Pennsylvania can involve state personal income tax and local wage or earned income taxes. Exact local treatment depends on where the employee lives and works, so review the local override fields when the automatic coverage does not match your situation.
The result should be read as a paycheck estimate for Pennsylvania, not a payroll instruction. Confirm unusual cases, local tax rules, employer setup, and official withholding treatment with payroll or a qualified authority.
For hourly, salary, take-home, W-4, bonus and paystub questions, start from the U.S. paycheck calculator, which lists each page; all of them apply the same federal calculation this page does.
How other states are handled
| State handling | Paycheck page |
|---|---|
| No state wage income tax, so the estimate is federal withholding and FICA | Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Wyoming |
| No state income tax, but a state employee premium is still withheld | Alaska, Washington |
| State withholding modeled automatically from official guidance | California, North Carolina, Indiana, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts |
| Partial coverage, with manual state withholding kept visible | New Jersey |
How the paycheck estimate is worked out
How Pennsylvania withholding is worked out
Pennsylvania is the only state in this calculator where both a state income tax and a separate employee payroll contribution are modeled automatically. Personal income tax is a flat 3.07% of compensation with no standard deduction, no allowances, and no brackets, so it applies to the first dollar of the paycheck and the last at exactly the same rate. Sitting alongside it is the employee unemployment compensation contribution at 0.07% of gross wages, for a combined state rate of 3.14%.
The UC contribution is worth understanding on its own terms, because on the employee side it carries no wage-base cap. It keeps coming out of every paycheck for the whole year, so entering year-to-date wages does not change it. A flat income tax with nothing subtracted first, plus an uncapped employee contribution, is why the state deduction on a Pennsylvania paycheck stays a near-constant percentage of gross all year, which is unusual among the states covered here.
Local tax is where Pennsylvania stops being simple, and the engine models exactly one city: Philadelphia. Pennsylvania also carries the widest reciprocity list in the tool, with compensation agreements covering Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. The calculator flags when one of those may apply but does not switch withholding off, because a filed certificate and the employer's own process determine the treatment that actually reaches payroll.
State-level paycheck lines in Pennsylvania
| Line | How it is treated for 2026 |
|---|---|
| Pennsylvania personal income tax | Flat 3.07% of compensation, with no deduction or allowance subtracted first |
| Employee UC contribution | 0.07% of gross wages, with no wage-base cap on the employee side |
| Combined state rate | 3.14% of gross pay, before any local wage tax |
| Philadelphia resident wage tax | 3.735% for pay dates on or after 1 July 2026; 3.74% for earlier pay dates |
| Philadelphia nonresident wage tax | 3.425% for pay dates on or after 1 July 2026; 3.43% for earlier pay dates |
| Reciprocity flag | Raised for Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia; withholding is not suppressed automatically |
A worked Pennsylvania paycheck
Take a single filer in Pennsylvania on $49,690 a year, paid every two weeks with no pre-tax deductions. $49,690 is the state's median annual wage across all occupations, so this sits near the middle of the Pennsylvania labor market rather than being a round number chosen to look tidy. The figures below are produced by running this page's own calculator, so they are what you would get by entering the same details in the form above.
Pennsylvania: $49,690 a year, paid biweekly
| Line | Amount per paycheck |
|---|---|
| Gross paycheck | $1,911.15 |
| Federal income tax | -$145.49 |
| Social Security | -$118.49 |
| Medicare | -$27.71 |
| State income tax | -$58.67 |
| State employee payroll contribution | -$1.34 |
| Estimated take-home pay | $1,559.45 |
That is $1,559.45 every two weeks, about $3,378.81 a month and $40,545.70 over a year, an effective paycheck tax rate of 18.40%. Median wage figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 state estimates, for all occupations.
Where these figures come from
Pennsylvania figures come from the Department of Revenue's Employer Withholding guidance for the flat 3.07% rate, the Department of Labor and Industry's UC yearly tax highlights for the 2026 employee contribution rate, and the City of Philadelphia's Wage Tax employer rates effective July 1, 2025 and July 1, 2026.
Why location coverage is labeled
Philadelphia is the one local wage tax this engine computes on its own. It keys off ZIP codes beginning 191: a residence ZIP in that range applies the resident rate, and a work ZIP in that range applies the nonresident rate to someone living elsewhere. The rate also stepped down mid-year, so the pay date you enter decides which figure is used. If only part of the paycheck was earned inside the city, the ZIP test will over-apply and the local override should be used to enter the correct allocation. Earned income taxes levied by other Pennsylvania municipalities and school districts are not modeled.
Coverage stays labeled in the result either way. Where a rule is not verified it is named as unsupported rather than guessed, and a manual override field is available when you know the amount from payroll guidance or an official source.
What this page assumes
The calculator converts salary or hourly earnings into one gross paycheck, subtracts pre-tax deductions, annualizes federal taxable wages for a W-4-style withholding estimate, applies FICA, then subtracts any entered state/local withholding and post-tax deductions.
Federal and FICA calculations run locally from versioned 2026 rule data. State and local withholding are coverage-labeled: unsupported jurisdictions are not silently guessed, and you can enter known withholding amounts when you have them. This is not tax, legal, payroll, or financial advice.
Common paycheck calculator mistakes
- Assuming every Pennsylvania payroll line is automatic. Read the result coverage notes and use manual override fields for items outside verified support.
- Assuming the automatic state line covers every local tax. Pennsylvania withholding here is computed from official guidance, but city, county and school-district levies in some of these states are separate lines. Check the local note above and enter a known local amount rather than assuming the state figure absorbs it.
What this calculator leaves out: This calculator is an educational estimate. It does not provide tax, legal, payroll, accounting, insurance, or financial advice; it does not file forms; it does not know every employer-specific benefit rule, local tax, wage-base history, payroll correction, reimbursement, or year-to-date adjustment; and unsupported state or local rules are not silently guessed.
Frequently asked questions
Why can Pennsylvania paychecks differ by city or local tax area?
Pennsylvania has state income tax and can also involve local wage or earned income taxes. This page supports the labeled rules in the result and leaves manual local override fields for amounts that depend on the exact workplace or residence.
Why does my Pennsylvania paystub show 3.14% rather than 3.07%?
Because two separate state lines are being withheld. The 3.07% is the personal income tax, and the additional 0.07% is the employee unemployment compensation contribution that Pennsylvania withholds from wages on top of it. The calculator reports them as separate lines rather than folding them into one state total, so you can reconcile each against the paystub.
When did the Philadelphia wage tax rate change during 2026?
The rates step down for pay dates on or after 1 July 2026. Residents move from 3.74% to 3.735% and nonresidents from 3.43% to 3.425%. The engine uses the pay date you enter rather than the year, so a check issued in June and a check issued in July will not carry the same city rate.
Does the calculator stop Pennsylvania withholding if I live in a reciprocal state?
No. It raises a reciprocity flag naming the agreement and leaves the withholding in place. Certificate filing and employer process determine whether the exemption actually applies to your payroll, and the tool cannot observe either, so it reports the possibility and leaves the adjustment to you and payroll.
Sources
The rules this estimate applies, each linked to the official publication it was taken from. Federal withholding and FICA come first; the state lines follow.
- IRS Publication 15-T (2026), Worksheet 1A and 2026 Percentage Method Tables for Automated Payroll Systems — reviewed 13 August 2026, in force 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
- IRS Publication 15 (2026), Social Security and Medicare tax rates — reviewed 13 August 2026, in force 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Employer Withholding, flat 3.07% of compensation — reviewed 13 August 2026, in force 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
- Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, UC yearly tax highlights, 2026 employee contribution rate — reviewed 15 August 2026, in force 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
This page is an educational estimate, not personal financial or tax advice. Withholding on a real paycheck depends on the W-4 on file and on payroll items this calculator does not see.