Pennsylvania Paycheck Calculator

How a Pennsylvania paycheck is taxed in 2026

Seven things can come out of a paycheck in Pennsylvania before you see it. Three are federal: income tax, Social Security and Medicare. Two are the state’s: a flat 3.07% income tax and a 0.07% unemployment tax. Two are local: the earned income tax of the town where you live or work, and a yearly local services tax of up to $52, taken a little at a time. Then come your own deductions, such as a 401(k) or health insurance. What is left is your take-home pay.

The calculator above works out each of these the way an employer’s payroll does, with the IRS’s 2026 withholding tables and the official rates of every Pennsylvania municipality. The stub shows one paycheck and the whole year side by side, because two of the taxes change during the year: Social Security stops once your pay for the year passes $184,500, and Additional Medicare starts once it passes $200,000.

Federal income tax: what your W-4 says

Federal income tax is the one part of the paycheck you control. Your employer withholds it from what you put on your Form W-4, using the tables in IRS Publication 15-T for 2026. The calculator follows the publication’s Worksheet 1A, the method payroll software uses: it turns one paycheck into a year’s pay, takes off a standard amount for your filing status, finds the tax in the right table, takes off your credits and divides by the number of paychecks.

• Filing status (Step 1c) picks the table: single or married filing separately, married filing jointly, or head of household.
• The Step 2 box is for two jobs, or a married couple who both work. It uses tables with half the tax-free amount, so more is withheld from each job.
• Step 3 lowers the tax by $2,200 a year for each child under 17 and $500 for each other dependent, if your income is $200,000 or less ($400,000 married filing jointly).
• Step 4 adds other income (4a), takes off deductions you expect to claim (4b) and adds any extra withholding you ask for (4c).

For 2026 the IRS added lines to the W-4’s deductions worksheet for the new federal deductions: tips (up to $25,000), the overtime premium (up to $12,500, or $25,000 married filing jointly), car loan interest (up to $10,000) and $6,000 for people 65 and older, each with income limits. They lower your withholding only if you put them in Step 4(b). The 2026 Form W-4 has the worksheet. If your W-4 is from 2019 or earlier, open “More W-4 entries” in the calculator and type your allowances instead.

Social Security and Medicare

Social Security takes 6.2% of your pay and Medicare 1.45%. Your employer pays the same again on top; that half does not come out of your pay. Social Security stops for the rest of the year once your pay passes $184,500. Medicare never stops, and once your pay with one employer passes $200,000 in the year, the employer must also withhold 0.9% Additional Medicare tax on everything above it (IRS Publication 15 for 2026).

A 401(k) does not lower either tax: Social Security and Medicare are worked out on your pay before it. Health, dental and vision premiums taken out through your employer’s cafeteria plan do lower them.

Pennsylvania income tax: 3.07% of almost all of it

Pennsylvania taxes pay at one flat rate, 3.07%, whatever you earn. There is no state W-4, no allowances and no standard deduction: your employer multiplies the pay Pennsylvania taxes by 3.07% each payday (Pennsylvania Department of Revenue). Bonuses and overtime are taxed the same way, added to the paycheck they come with.

What surprises many people is what Pennsylvania does not let you take off first. Money you put into a 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b) lowers your federal income tax but not your Pennsylvania tax: the Department of Revenue’s guide says “employee contributions to any retirement plan are always taxable as compensation” (Personal Income Tax Guide). Health, dental and vision premiums through a qualifying cafeteria plan are different: Pennsylvania leaves them out, and so does the calculator. The same goes for health savings account contributions made through a cafeteria plan.

Two groups can have no Pennsylvania tax withheld at all. People who live in Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia or West Virginia can give their Pennsylvania employer form REV-419; if the employer agrees, it withholds their home state’s tax instead. And people who expect to owe no Pennsylvania tax at all under its Tax Forgiveness rules can ask for no withholding with the same form. Tick the boxes under “Where you live and work” and “More deductions and exemptions” if either is you.

Pennsylvania unemployment tax: 0.07%

In Pennsylvania, employees pay into unemployment insurance too. The rate is 0.07% of your gross pay, with no limit, which is 70 cents on every $1,000 (Department of Labor & Industry). The calculator works it out on your gross pay, before any deductions; How we calculate says why.

Local earned income tax: where you live and where you work

Almost every Pennsylvania municipality and school district taxes earned income, and your employer withholds it. Which rate you pay depends on two places: where you live and where you work. Your home has a resident rate (the municipality’s rate plus the school district’s), and the place you work has a non-resident rate. Your employer withholds whichever is higher (DCED, Local Withholding Tax FAQs).

Most resident rates are 1%, but they run from 0% to 3.75% in Chester City; Philadelphia’s is 3.735%. Most non-resident rates are 1%, 0.5% or nothing at all. Philadelphia follows its own rules: its residents pay the city’s resident rate wherever they work in Pennsylvania, and people who work in the city but live outside it pay its non-resident rate of 3.425%, even if they live in another state. The calculator has the rates of all 2,619 municipality and school district pairs from the state’s register; type your town in the boxes above, or look it up in the local tax rate finder. Pennsylvania local taxes, explained goes through the rules, and the Philadelphia wage tax has its own guide.

If you work from home, your home is your work place too, so your home’s rate is the one that counts. Tick “I work from home” and the calculator uses it. Philadelphia is the exception: if your employer is in the city and working from home is your own choice, the city still taxes your pay, as the Philadelphia wage tax explains.

The $52 local services tax

The line on your stub marked LST is the local services tax: a flat yearly amount, set by the municipality (and sometimes the school district) where you work, of up to $52. Two cities charge more: in 2026, Harrisburg and Scranton charge $156, according to DCED’s register. When it is over $10 a year, your employer must take it in equal parts from each paycheck, rounded down to the cent, so $52 comes to $2.00 every two weeks, $1.00 a week, $2.16 twice a month or $4.33 a month (DCED). Where it is over $10, people who earn less than $12,000 a year in that municipality can file for exemption from it; a few places set a higher line, such as $15,600 in Scranton and $24,500 in Harrisburg, and the calculator names the line where you work.

Three worked examples

Take someone single paid $60,000 a year, every two weeks, living and working in the city of Harrisburg. Each paycheck is $2,307.69 before anything is taken out. Out of it come federal income tax $193.08, Social Security $143.08, Medicare $33.46, Pennsylvania income tax $70.85, the state unemployment tax $1.62, the local earned income tax (2%) $46.15 and the local services tax $6.00. That leaves $1,813.45 a paycheck, $47,149.70 over the year: 78.6% of the pay.

Take someone married (filing jointly) paid $85,000 a year, twice a month, living in Lower Merion Township and working in the city of Philadelphia, with 2 children under 17 on the W-4. Each paycheck is $3,541.67 before anything is taken out. Out of it come federal income tax $60.00, Social Security $219.58, Medicare $51.35, Pennsylvania income tax $108.73, the state unemployment tax $2.48 and the Philadelphia wage tax (3.425%) $121.30. That leaves $2,978.23 a paycheck, $71,477.52 over the year: 84.1% of the pay.

Take someone single paid $120,000 a year, every two weeks, living and working in the city of Pittsburgh, saving 6% in a 401(k). Each paycheck is $4,615.38 before anything is taken out. Out of it come federal income tax $614.85, Social Security $286.15, Medicare $66.92, Pennsylvania income tax $141.69, the state unemployment tax $3.23, the local earned income tax (3%) $138.46, the local services tax $2.00 and the 401(k) $276.92. That leaves $3,085.16 a paycheck, $80,214.16 over the year: 66.8% of the pay.

The third example saves 6% in a 401(k). That lowers the federal income tax, but Pennsylvania tax and Pittsburgh’s 3% local tax are still worked out on the full salary.

Questions people ask

How much tax comes out of a paycheck in Pennsylvania?

Everyone in Pennsylvania pays the same 3.07% state income tax and 0.07% unemployment tax, plus 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare. Local tax is usually about 1% of pay plus a few dollars of local services tax. Federal income tax depends on your pay and your W-4. The calculator works out your own figures, line by line.

What is the Pennsylvania state income tax rate for 2026?

It is 3.07%, the same flat rate for everyone, with no brackets. It has been 3.07% since 2004.

Does Pennsylvania tax 401(k) contributions?

Yes. Pennsylvania income tax and local earned income tax are worked out on your pay before your 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b) contributions, so saving more does not lower them. It lowers only your federal income tax.

How do I know which local tax rate I pay?

Compare your home’s resident rate with the non-resident rate of the place you work: your employer withholds the higher one. Type both places into the calculator, or use the local tax rate finder. Your employer knows them from the Residency Certification Form you filled in when you were hired.

What is the LST on my pay stub?

It is the local services tax of the municipality where you work, up to $52 a year (more in Harrisburg and Scranton), split across your paychecks. It is the same whatever you earn, but if you earn less than $12,000 a year in that municipality (more in a few places), you can usually file for exemption.

I live in New Jersey and work in Pennsylvania. Do I pay Pennsylvania tax?

Not if you give your employer form REV-419 and it agrees: Pennsylvania and New Jersey have a reciprocal agreement for wages, so your employer then withholds New Jersey tax instead. If Pennsylvania tax is withheld anyway, you can ask for it back on a Pennsylvania return (Pennsylvania Department of Revenue). The agreement does not cover local taxes. If you work in Philadelphia you still pay the city’s non-resident wage tax.

Why is my paycheck different from the calculator’s answer?

Payroll systems may round to whole dollars, your employer may use a different pay period or benefits we don’t see, and a W-4 or local rate on file may not be what you expect. The calculator follows the IRS’s published method and Pennsylvania’s published rates; where no rule says how to round, it rounds each tax to the cent. If the difference is more than a few dollars, compare each line with your stub; the one that differs tells you what to ask payroll about.

Is this an official government calculator?

No. Pennsylvania Paycheck Calculator is an independent website. It uses the government’s published tables and rates, and links each one, but it is not run by the IRS, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or any municipality.