California paycheck calculator

Estimate take-home pay after taxes and deductions.

Pay details stay in this browser

Paycheck details

Required

State where you live and work

Who can use this calculator?

Pay frequency

Hourly rate

Workweek hours

Hourly pay requirements

My pay meets these hourly requirements.Federal filing status

Benefits and payroll deductions

Dollar amounts per paycheck. Leave zero when no deduction applies.

Pre-tax health benefits

Traditional 401(k) / 403(b)

After-tax deductions

Local income / wage tax

Other payroll deductions

Previous FICA-taxable wages this year

Federal W-4 settings

Copy your 2020-or-later W-4. Zero means no adjustment.

Step 2(c): two-jobs / spouse-works box is checked

Step 3: annual credits

Step 4(a): annual other income

Step 4(b): annual deductions

Step 4(c): extra tax per check

My W-4 claims exemption from federal income-tax withholding. FICA still applies.

California income tax

California tax notes

State tax method

Dated planning estimate, not current payroll withholding.

State pre-tax deductions per check

What will extra overtime pay add?

Compare this check with and without added gross earnings. Federal withholding annualizes each check. Benefit, local-tax, and insurance amounts stay fixed in this comparison.

Extra gross earnings on this check

Work out extra-shift gross pay

Confirm the standard federal hourly method, or use gross pay from payroll.

No account. Pay details stay in this tab.

RESULT

Estimated take-home pay

2026

Your breakdown will appear here

Choose a state and enter your pay. Then select Show my take-home estimate to see taxes, deductions, and take-home pay.

Try an example to see how it works.

How this California paycheck estimate works

The February baseline carries prior-year bracket and deduction figures. California SDI is separate from income tax and must be entered under other payroll deductions. Daily overtime is not calculated here; enter gross pay from payroll when it applies.

California wage-income tax baseline

The following annual tax brackets come from Tax Foundation’s compilation as of 2026-02-11. That is the data date, not today’s date. The compilation includes prior-year amounts where updates were unavailable. This page does not claim these are current state withholding tables.

California: annual taxable-income bands in the dated baseline
Single: income over	Rate	Joint: income over	Rate
$0.00	1%	$0.00	1%
$11,079.00	2%	$22,158.00	2%
$26,264.00	4%	$52,528.00	4%
$41,452.00	6%	$82,904.00	6%
$57,542.00	8%	$115,084.00	8%
$72,724.00	9.3%	$145,448.00	9.3%
$371,479.00	10.3%	$742,958.00	10.3%
$445,771.00	11.3%	$891,542.00	11.3%
$742,953.00	12.3%	$1,485,906.00	12.3%

Baseline standard deduction: $5,540.00 single / $11,080.00 joint. Personal exemption: $0.00 / $0.00. Personal or taxpayer credit before modeled limits: $153.00 / $306.00. These amounts are not additional cash deductions from your paycheck.

The California table is supplemented with a 1% tax on taxable income above $1 million for either filing status. The listed rates alone do not include that surcharge.

For a closer match to your check, select Enter payroll amount and enter your California income-tax withholding. State and federal pre-tax treatment can differ. Enter eligible state pre-tax deductions separately when using the bracket estimate.

Example: $25 an hour, 40 hours, paid weekly

CALIFORNIA / SINGLE / SAMPLE VALUES$1,000.00 gross → $822.93 estimated take-home

Federal withholding $78.08; Social Security $62.00; Medicare $14.50; California basic bracket tax $22.49. No local tax, insurance, benefits, or W-4 adjustments. Previous year-to-date wages are zero. This is a worked planning example, not a typical paycheck or an official payroll result.

What should I copy from my California pay stub?

Check the pay frequency, gross wages, state income-tax withholding, local tax, and employee insurance or leave contributions. Keep employer-only contributions out of employee deductions. Copy previous FICA-taxable wages from the same employer to account for the annual Social Security limit.

Will overtime change my California paycheck?

Use the extra-pay comparison to recalculate the same check with added gross earnings. The applicable gross overtime rules come first; this tax estimate does not determine all overtime wages due. Calculate standard federal overtime and check California daily-overtime requirements with payroll before using that gross amount.

Baseline source: Tax Foundation, 2026 state income-tax compilation (secondary source; published data date 2026-02-11). Page checked 2026-10-23. See the calculation method and omitted state rules.

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