Pennsylvania Paycheck Calculator
Pennsylvania withholds three separate things from a paycheck: a flat 3.07% state income tax, a 0.07% employee unemployment contribution, and a local earned income tax set by the municipality you live or work in. That third one varies more than the other two combined — from nothing to 3.74% — which is why a state-level figure is close to useless here. This calculator keeps all three on separate lines for 2026.
California payroll premiums
Mandatory deductions that aren't income tax. They come out of your paycheck whether or not California taxes income.
- CA SDI1.3% (no cap)
1.3% of all wages, with no cap since 2024.
Your Form W-4
Optional. Skip this and you'll get the withholding for a W-4 with nothing claimed on it. The form has had no "allowances" since 2020 — dependents are now a dollar credit in Step 3.
The dollar total from Step 3, not a number of people — typically $2,200 per qualifying child and $500 per other dependent.
Interest, dividends or retirement income with no withholding of its own.
Only deductions beyond the standard deduction, from the Step 4(b) worksheet.
An extra dollar amount held from each paycheck, on top of the tax above.
This calculator provides estimates for informational purposes only. Actual paycheck amounts may vary based on your employer, benefits, local taxes, filing status, and tax elections.
Federal withholding calculation updated September 2026 using IRS Publication 15-T (2026).
Your estimate will appear here
Enter your pay details and click calculate to see your estimated take-home pay, tax breakdown, and annual income.
A note on local tax: The 3.07% state figure is exact, and local Earned Income Tax now has its own line once you pick a municipality. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are listed with their real rates, along with a 1% option that covers most other municipalities. Rates depend on the specific municipality and school district you live and work in, commonly totalling somewhere around 1% to just over 3% combined, so if yours differs, enter it directly.
Three Deductions, Only One of Them Flat Across the State
State income tax is the simplest in the country to check: a flat 3.07% on wages, with no standard deduction and no personal exemption. Every dollar is taxed from the first one, so unlike most states there is no income at which you pay nothing. On $75,000 that is $1,808.23 a year, $69.55 a paycheck.
Employee unemployment (UC) is a separate 0.07% of gross wages with no ceiling. It is small — $52.50 a year on this salary — but it is a genuine deduction, it is not income tax, and it appears as its own line on your stub. The much larger employer unemployment contribution is paid by your employer and never withheld from you.
Local earned income tax is where Pennsylvania becomes unusual. Almost every municipality and school district levies one, and the rate is set locally. This is the line that actually decides your net pay, and it can be several times the size of the state tax.
Philadelphia Is Not Pennsylvania
Philadelphia has by far the highest local rate in the state, and it is quoted so often that it gets treated as the Pennsylvania figure. It is not. Most of the state pays around 1%, and plenty of people pay nothing locally at all.
The same $75,000 salary, biweekly, filing single, across four Pennsylvania situations:
| Where | Local rate | Local tax a year | Net per paycheck |
|---|---|---|---|
| No local tax | 0% | $0.00 | $2,297.38 |
| Typical municipality | 1% | $750.00 | $2,268.53 |
| Pittsburgh resident | 3% | $2,250.00 | $2,210.84 |
| Philadelphia resident | 3.74% | $2,801.25 | $2,189.64 |
A Philadelphia resident pays $2,051.25 a year more in local tax than someone in a typical 1% municipality, and $2,801.25 more than someone with no local tax — on identical pay. Note also that the city wage tax on this salary ($2,801.25) is larger than the entire state income tax bill ($1,808.23).
Pittsburgh’s 3% is itself two taxes stacked: a 1% city rate plus a 2% school district rate. That structure is normal in Pennsylvania, and it is why a rate you find quoted for a borough may be only half the story.
Where You Live and Where You Work Both Matter
Pennsylvania’s local earned income tax follows a rule most states do not have, and it is the single most common source of confusion on a Pennsylvania paycheck.
Broadly, you owe the higher of your resident rate and the non-resident rate where you work, and your employer withholds accordingly. So commuting between two municipalities does not let you pick the cheaper one, and moving house can change your withholding without your job changing at all.
Philadelphia shows the mechanism plainly, because it charges two different rates: 3.74% for residents and 3.43% for non-residents who work in the city. Someone living outside the city and commuting in pays $2,568.75 a year rather than $2,801.25 — a difference of $232.50, which on this salary is $8.94 a paycheck.
Because rates are set by roughly 2,500 separate taxing jurisdictions and change locally, the calculator offers the well-known ones and otherwise lets you enter your own rate. A wrong local rate is worse than no local rate, because there is no way for you to spot it in the total.
Quick Answer
Pennsylvania state income tax is a flat 3.07% of wages with no standard deduction and no personal exemption, so it starts at the first dollar. On $75,000 that is $1,808.23 a year, plus $52.50 of employee unemployment contribution. Local earned income tax is added on top and depends on your municipality: nothing in some places, $750.00 a year at a typical 1% rate, and $2,801.25 for a Philadelphia resident. Take-home on that salary ranges from $2,297.38 to $2,189.64 a biweekly paycheck depending only on your address.
How It Works: Formula & Variables
Net Pay = Gross Pay − Federal Tax − State Tax (3.07% flat) − Social Security − Medicare − Other Deductions
- Gross Pay
- Your total earnings before any deductions, hourly rate times hours, or annual salary divided by pay periods.
- Federal Tax
- Calculated using progressive tax brackets based on your filing status and taxable income.
- State Tax
- A true flat 3.07% of taxable income. Local Earned Income Tax is a separate line, taken from the municipality you select.
- Social Security
- 6.2% of gross pay, up to the annual wage base limit.
- Medicare
- 1.45% of gross pay, with no wage limit (plus 0.9% surtax above certain thresholds).
Worked Examples
Example 1: A typical 1% municipality
$75,000 paid biweekly, filing single, in a municipality charging the common 1% rate. Gross $2,884.62. Federal $295.00, Pennsylvania income tax $69.55, local earned income tax $28.85, employee unemployment $2.02, Social Security $178.85, Medicare $41.83. Take-home $2,268.53, 78.6% of gross. This is the case most Pennsylvanians are in.
Example 2: Living in Philadelphia
The same salary and the same job, but living in the city. Everything is unchanged except the local line, which rises from $28.85 to $107.74 a paycheck. Take-home falls to $2,189.64, 75.9% of gross — $78.89 less every payday, or $2,051 a year.
Example 3: Commuting into Philadelphia
Working in the city but living outside it means the non-resident rate of 3.43% rather than 3.74%. Local tax is $2,568.75 a year instead of $2,801.25, and take-home is $2,198.58 a paycheck. Moving into the city would cost $8.94 per payday before any change in rent.
Example 4: No local tax at all
Some Pennsylvania situations carry no local earned income tax. Then the deductions are federal $295.00, state $69.55, unemployment $2.02 and FICA, for a take-home of $2,297.38, 79.6% of gross. Against the Philadelphia resident case that is $107.74 a paycheck, entirely from one line that has nothing to do with the state.
Key Concepts
One of the lowest flat rates: At 3.07%, Pennsylvania's state income tax rate is among the lowest flat rates of any state that taxes wages.
Local tax makes the real story more complex: Nearly every Pennsylvania municipality and school district layers its own Earned Income Tax on top of the state rate, collected through the state's Act 32 local tax system.
Philadelphia is a special case: Instead of the standard local EIT, Philadelphia collects its own city Wage Tax, at a rate that applies to both residents and, at a lower rate, nonresidents who work in the city.
Useful for comparing job offers: When comparing a Pennsylvania offer to another state, remember to factor in your specific municipality's local tax rate, not just the state's 3.07%.
Common Mistakes
Forgetting local Earned Income Tax: The biggest gap between a state-only estimate and your real Pennsylvania paycheck is usually local EIT. Select your municipality so it lands in the total.
Assuming Philadelphia works like the rest of the state: Philadelphia's Wage Tax is a separate system from the standard municipal EIT used almost everywhere else in Pennsylvania.
Comparing gross salaries across states: A $70,000 offer in Pennsylvania and a $70,000 offer in Texas don't translate to the same take-home pay. Always compare net pay, not gross.
Ignoring pre-tax deductions: 401(k) contributions and health insurance premiums lower your taxable income before federal and state tax apply, so leaving them out understates your real take-home pay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pennsylvania charges a flat 3.07% state income tax on wages, one of the lowest flat rates in the country. This calculator applies that exact 3.07% rate. Note that it doesn't include local Earned Income Tax, which most Pennsylvania workers also pay on top of the state rate.
On top of the 3.07% state rate, most Pennsylvania municipalities and school districts collect their own local Earned Income Tax, typically ranging from around 1% to just over 3% combined, depending on where you live and work. Philadelphia has its own separate Wage Tax system instead of the standard EIT. This calculator doesn't include local EIT since rates vary by municipality, so your real Pennsylvania paycheck will usually show a bit more withheld than this estimate.
Federal income tax, the flat 3.07% Pennsylvania state tax, local Earned Income Tax, Social Security (6.2% up to the annual wage base), and Medicare (1.45%, plus 0.9% more for high earners).
Philadelphia is authorized under its own city charter to levy a Wage Tax instead of using the standard municipal EIT system that applies elsewhere in the state. Philadelphia's combined resident wage tax rate runs higher than the local EIT in most other Pennsylvania municipalities.
Yes, switch between the Hourly and Salary tabs and enter your wage or annual salary along with your pay frequency. The state is already set to Pennsylvania.
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Comparing Pennsylvania with a neighbouring state?
The state comparison tool is the only one here that includes local income tax, which is the whole game in Pennsylvania. Two obvious comparisons: New Jersey, just over the river from Philadelphia, has no local income tax but four separate worker contributions instead; and New York runs city income tax the same way Philadelphia does, with its own quirks.
Sources and assumptions
- State rate and employee unemployment: Pennsylvania Office of the Budget, BCPO Payroll Memo #26-01, 13 January 2026 — “The withholding for Pennsylvania State Tax remains at 3.07% for 2026. The Department of Labor and Industry confirmed that the employee Unemployment Tax will remain at 0.07% for 2026.” Verified 6 September 2026.
- Philadelphia rates are those effective 1 July 2026 from the City of Philadelphia Department of Revenue. The city steps its rate down mid-year under a multi-year plan, so a rate quoted in June differs from one quoted in August.
- Other local rates are set by roughly 2,500 municipalities and school districts and change frequently. Only well-documented ones are offered; anywhere else, enter your own rate rather than accepting a guess.
- Assumptions: wages only; a default W-4 unless you enter otherwise; no state standard deduction or exemption, because Pennsylvania has neither. Every figure above is generated from the same engine the calculator runs on.