How to Calculate Your Paycheck Manually: 2026 Step-by-Step Guide
If your pay stub never quite matches the number you expected, the fastest way to find out why is to run the math yourself. Every paycheck follows the same legal sequence of subtractions — once you know the order, you can verify any pay stub in under five minutes.
The Master Paycheck Formula
Net Pay = (Gross Pay − Pre-Tax Deductions − Taxes − Post-Tax Deductions) + Reimbursements
That single line covers every paycheck in the U.S., whether you're hourly or salaried, in a 0%-tax state or a high-tax one. The six sections below walk through each part of that formula with real numbers, so by the end you'll be able to recalculate your own paycheck by hand — not just read about how it's done.
Want the number without doing the math? Our interactive calculator runs this exact formula for your state and filing status. If you suspect your employer's payroll software made an error, the manual breakdown below is the most reliable check.
Paycheck Calculator
Gross Pay vs. Net Pay: Why There's a Gap
Gross Pay is everything you earned in a pay period before a single dollar is withheld — your hourly wage × hours worked, or your annual salary divided across your pay periods. Net Pay is what actually lands in your bank account after taxes, benefits, and other deductions are taken out.
20% to 35%
For most people, the gap between gross and net pay runs anywhere from 20% to 35% of gross pay, depending on filing status, state, and elected pre-tax benefits. It is rarely a fixed percentage, which is why employees are often surprised by their first paycheck.
Why Knowing This Breakdown Matters:
1. Catches Payroll Errors Early
Payroll software occasionally runs on an outdated state tax table or a misconfigured deduction. If you can rebuild your own number from gross to net, you'll notice a $40 discrepancy before it turns into a pattern across six pay periods.
2. Makes Your W-4 Accurate
Seeing exactly how much is being withheld — and why — lets you adjust your W-4 elections deliberately, instead of guessing and getting an unpleasant surprise (or an unnecessarily large refund) at tax time.
The 6-Step Manual Paycheck Calculation
Every paycheck — hourly or salaried, any state — moves through the same six steps in the same order. Skip a step or do them out of sequence and your final number will be wrong, so work through them exactly as listed below.
Step 1
Calculate Gross Pay
If you're hourly: Multiply your regular hours by your hourly rate. Any hours over 40 in a week are paid at 1.5× your rate — add that overtime pay on top.
Example: 42 hours at $20/hr = (40 × $20) + (2 × $30) = $800 + $60 = $860 gross for the week.
If you're salaried: Divide your annual salary by your number of pay periods:
| Pay Frequency | Divide Annual Salary By |
|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 |
| Biweekly | 26 |
| Semimonthly | 24 |
| Monthly | 12 |
Example: $65,000/year, paid biweekly → $65,000 ÷ 26 = $2,500 gross per paycheck.
Step 2
Subtract Pre-Tax Deductions
Before any tax is calculated, subtract:
- 401(k) or 403(b) retirement contributions
- Health, dental, or vision insurance premiums
- FSA or HSA contributions
These come out first because they lower your taxable income — every dollar you put here is a dollar the IRS never sees. The number left over is your Adjusted Gross Pay, and it's what every tax in Step 3 and Step 4 is actually calculated on — not your original gross pay.
Step 3
Calculate FICA Taxes
FICA is applied to your Adjusted Gross Pay at a flat rate, regardless of your filing status:
| FICA Tax | 2026 Rate | Wage Base Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security | 6.2% | Stops once YTD wages hit $184,500 |
| Medicare | 1.45% | No limit |
Once your year-to-date earnings cross $184,500, Social Security withholding stops for the rest of the year — your paycheck actually gets a little bigger. There's no equivalent cap for Medicare; it applies to every dollar you earn.
If your YTD income passes $200,000 (single filer — thresholds differ for other filing statuses), an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax kicks in on the amount above that threshold, per IRS Publication 15-T.
Step 4
Calculate Federal and State Income Tax
This is the one step that isn't a flat percentage — it depends on your W-4 elections, your filing status (Single, Married Filing Jointly, or Head of Household), and the 2026 IRS tax brackets. The exact dollar figure comes from the percentage-method tables in IRS Publication 15-T, applied to your Adjusted Gross Pay.
State tax works the same way but with your state's own brackets and tables. Nine states — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming — charge no tax on wage income, so this step is $0 if you live in one of them.
Step 5
Subtract Post-Tax Deductions
Unlike Step 2, these come out after tax has already been calculated — they don't reduce what you're taxed on, only what you take home:
- Roth 401(k) or Roth IRA contributions
- Wage garnishments (child support, student loan default)
- Union dues, gym memberships, or similar payroll deductions
Step 6
Add Back Non-Taxable Reimbursements
Finally, add back anything your employer owes you that isn't classified as taxable income:
- Mileage or travel reimbursements
- Approved office supply or tool stipends
These are added at full value with zero tax impact, since they were never counted as earnings in the first place.
Final Result: What's left after Step 6 is your Net Pay — the exact dollar amount that hits your bank account.
The 6-Step Manual Paycheck Calculation Process
Example 1 — Single Filer
Biweekly | $2,500 Gross
| Step | Action | Amount | Running Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Gross Pay | — | $2,500.00 |
| − | Pre-Tax Health Insurance | $100.00 | $2,400.00 |
| − | Social Security (6.2%) | $148.80 | $2,251.20 |
| − | Medicare (1.45%) | $34.80 | $2,216.40 |
| − | Federal Tax | $220.00 | $1,996.40 |
| + | Travel Reimbursement | $50.00 | $2,046.40 |
FICA is calculated on the $2,400 Adjusted Gross Pay, not the original $2,500 — the $100 health premium shielded that amount from tax exposure.
Example 2 — Head of Household
Biweekly | $2,000 Gross
| Step | Action | Amount | Running Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Gross Pay | — | $2,000.00 |
| − | Pre-Tax 401(k) | $80.00 | $1,920.00 |
| − | Social Security (6.2%) | $119.04 | $1,800.96 |
| − | Medicare (1.45%) | $27.84 | $1,773.12 |
| − | Federal Tax (HOH bracket) | $95.00 | $1,678.12 |
| − | Post-Tax Roth IRA | $50.00 | $1,628.12 |
This example shows the two deduction types living side by side: the 401(k) in Step 2 lowered the taxable base before FICA and federal tax were calculated, while the Roth IRA in Step 5 came out after — it reduces take-home pay but does nothing for taxable income. Head of Household brackets are wider than Single brackets at the same income, which is why the federal withholding here is proportionally lower than Example 1.
Example 3 — Married Filing Jointly
Monthly | $5,000 Gross
| Step | Action | Amount | Running Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Gross Pay | — | $5,000.00 |
| − | Pre-Tax Health Ins. + 401(k) | $400.00 | $4,600.00 |
| − | Social Security (6.2%) | $285.20 | $4,314.80 |
| − | Medicare (1.45%) | $66.70 | $4,248.10 |
| − | Federal Tax (MFJ bracket) | $410.00 | $3,838.10 |
| − | State Tax (4%) | $184.00 | $3,654.10 |
| + | Mileage Reimbursement | $75.00 | $3,729.10 |
This example adds the piece the first two skipped: state income tax. At a higher monthly gross, stacking two pre-tax benefits together ($400 combined) meaningfully shrinks the FICA and federal tax base — a pattern worth noticing if you're deciding how much to allocate to pre-tax accounts each year.
Step 1: Calculate Your Total Gross Pay
Most guides stop at explaining the six steps. The mistakes below are where people actually go wrong once they try to apply those steps to their own paycheck — and they're the difference between a rough estimate and a number that matches your pay stub exactly.
Calculating FICA on Gross Pay instead of Adjusted Gross Pay
If you have any pre-tax deductions at all — even a small HSA contribution — FICA has to be calculated on what's left after Step 2, not your starting gross. Skipping this makes every downstream number too high.
Forgetting the Social Security Wage Base Cap
High earners who cross $184,500 in a given year sometimes keep 6.2% coming out through December, when withholding should stop once hit. If you changed jobs mid-year, each employer tracks the cap separately, which can cause over-withholding.
Mixing Up Pre-Tax and Post-Tax Order
Post-tax deductions like Roth contributions and wage garnishments never reduce taxable income — they only reduce final take-home pay. Subtracting them in Step 2 instead of Step 5 understates your tax liability.
Using Last Year's Tax Brackets & Wage Base Figures
IRS brackets, standard deductions, and the SSA wage base adjust every January. A calculation correct in December can be wrong by February simply because the year changed — always confirm you are using current-year IRS Publication 15-T figures.
Assuming Overtime is Taxed at a Higher Rate
Overtime pay itself isn't taxed differently — it's still regular wages. However, a larger check can push more of that period's income into a higher withholding bracket for that pay period only, which people mistake for extra tax. It evens out at year-end.
Forgetting Pay-Period Brackets Aren't Your Annual Bracket
Withholding tables apply your income for that pay period to an annualized bracket estimate. This is why a one-time bonus or a week of heavy overtime can spike your withholding percentage temporarily.
Answers to Common Paycheck Questions
On a $300.00 gross paycheck, mandatory federal FICA taxes take out a flat 7.65%, which equals $22.95 ($18.60 for Social Security and $4.35 for Medicare). Depending on your state and your W-4 filing selections, additional federal and state income taxes can claim another 10% to 15%, bringing your total estimated deductions to roughly $30.00 to $68.00.
If you earn $20.00 an hour working a standard 40-hour work week, your gross earnings equal $800.00 weekly. If your company distributes salary on a biweekly frequency, your gross paycheck balance will equal exactly $1,600.00 before taxes. For monthly pay schedules, your gross base shifts to $3,466.67.
No, a rate of $20.00 an hour actually equals a gross annual salary of $41,600.00 before payroll deductions. This standard evaluation is calculated based on a traditional full-time working framework of 40 hours per week multiplied across exactly 52 weeks in a calendar year ($20 × 40 × 52).
A gross annual salary of $70,000.00 breaks down to an hourly rate of exactly $33.65 an hour. This payroll evaluation assumes you maintain a traditional full-time workload of 2,080 working hours per year ($70,000 ÷ 2,080 annual hours).
Earning a steady gross amount of $1,600.00 a week results in a total gross annual income of $83,200.00 per year. This figure is computed by multiplying your fixed weekly earnings across the standard 52 calendar weeks ($1,600 × 52).
An income baseline of $2,000.00 a month evaluates to an hourly rate of approximately $11.54 an hour for full-time workers. It is derived by dividing your annual baseline of $24,000.00 by the standard 2,080 working hours required in a legal payroll year.
A base salary of $60,000.00 a year breaks down to a precise hourly wage of $28.85 an hour. This calculation divides the annual compensation by the standard full-time baseline of 2,080 hours ($60,000 ÷ 2,080).
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