Washington Paycheck Calculator

This Washington paycheck calculator estimates your 2026 take-home pay for a salary or an hourly wage. Washington takes no income tax from wages, but that doesn’t mean your state takes nothing. Two state premiums come out of nearly every paycheck: Paid Family and Medical Leave, and the WA Cares Fund. This tool shows both by name, at their 2026 rates, beside your federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare.

About the Washington paycheck calculator

Many paycheck tools treat Washington as “no state tax” and stop there. Your pay stub tells a different story, with two or three Washington lines on it. This calculator is built to match the stub.

• Paid Family and Medical Leave at the 2026 rate. 1.13% of gross wages, with employees paying 71.43% of it, up to the $184,500 wage cap.
• WA Cares Fund. 0.58% of gross wages, with no cap.
• Switches for the exceptions. Tick a box if your employer pays your Paid Leave premium, or if you hold a WA Cares exemption.
• Workers’ compensation. If your stub shows an L&I deduction, enter it and it appears as its own line.
• Federal withholding from your W-4. Filing status, dependents and Step 4 adjustments, using the IRS method for 2026.
• The working. Every figure is explained step by step under the result.

It runs in your browser. Your salary is never uploaded or saved.

How to use the Washington paycheck calculator

1. Enter your pay. Choose salary or hourly. For hourly pay, enter your rate, weekly hours and any overtime.
2. Choose how often you’re paid. Weekly, every two weeks, twice a month or monthly.
3. Copy your W-4. Pick your filing status and enter the Step 3 dependent credit if you have one.
4. Set the Washington options if either exception applies to you, and add an L&I deduction if you know it.
5. Add your own deductions. A 401(k) percentage, pre-tax benefits such as health insurance, and anything taken after tax.
6. Read the result. Take-home pay per paycheck and per year, with a line for each deduction.

Washington has no income tax on wages

The Washington Department of Revenue puts it plainly: Washington does not currently have an individual income tax. Your employer withholds nothing for the state the way an employer in Oregon or Idaho would. No Washington city or county takes income tax from wages either.

That is changing for a small group. In 2026 the Legislature passed Senate Bill 6346. Beginning January 1, 2028, a new 9.9% income tax applies to individuals and married couples filing jointly with adjusted gross income above $1 million. The first returns are due in April 2029. It doesn’t affect any paycheck in 2026 or 2027, so this calculator doesn’t apply it.

What comes out of a Washington paycheck

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Paid Leave pays part of your wages when you take time off for a serious health condition, to care for a family member, or to bond with a new child. It’s funded by a premium on wages.

From January 1, 2026, the premium is 1.13% of gross wages, not counting tips, up to the Social Security cap of $184,500. Employees pay 71.43% of the premium. Employers with 50 or more employees pay the other 28.57%.

Your premium = gross wages x 1.13% x 71.43%

That’s about 0.81% of your pay. On a $60,000 salary it comes to $484.30 a year. Once your wages for the year pass $184,500, the premium stops, so the most anyone pays in 2026 is $1,489.21.

Two things can make your stub differ:

• Your employer may pay your share. Employers are allowed to cover the employee premium. If yours does, tick the box and the line drops to zero.
• Small employers. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees don’t owe the employer share. You still pay yours.

The WA Cares Fund

WA Cares is the state’s long-term care insurance programme. Workers contribute 0.58% of gross wages, and contributions began in July 2023. Unlike Paid Leave and Social Security, there is no wage cap: the 0.58% applies to every dollar you earn.

Your premium = gross wages x 0.58%

On $60,000 that’s $348 a year. On $250,000 it’s $1,450.

Some workers don’t contribute. The programme says all full-time, part-time and temporary workers in Washington contribute unless they have an approved exemption. If you hold one, tick the box. Check the WA Cares website for who qualifies, because the categories are specific.

Both premiums are charged on gross wages. A 401(k) contribution lowers your federal income tax, but it doesn’t lower either Washington premium.

Washington paycheck calculator example: $60,000 a year

A single filer earns $60,000, is paid every two weeks, and has no other deductions.

You keep 82.6% of your gross pay. The two Washington premiums together take $32.01 a paycheck, or $832.30 a year.

The same salary with benefits

Now add a 6% 401(k) contribution, $100 a paycheck of pre-tax health insurance, and an $8.50 L&I deduction. Federal income tax falls to $164.46 because the 401(k) and insurance lower your taxable wages. Social Security and Medicare fall a little because of the insurance. The two Washington premiums don’t move. Take-home pay is $1,695.37.

A married couple with two children

One spouse earns $100,000, files married filing jointly, and claims two children on Step 3 of the W-4 ($4,000 of credits). Paid every two weeks, gross pay is $3,846.15. Federal income tax is $140.00 a paycheck after the credits. Social Security is $238.46 and Medicare $55.77. Paid Leave takes $31.04 and WA Cares $22.31. Take-home pay is $3,358.57, or $87,322.84 a year.

Change the filing status in the Washington paycheck calculator and you’ll see only the federal line move. Neither Washington premium depends on whether you’re married or how many children you have.

An hourly example

At $25 an hour for 40 hours, paid weekly, gross pay is $1,000. Federal income tax is $78.08, Social Security $62.00 and Medicare $14.50. Paid Leave takes $8.07 and WA Cares $5.80. Take-home pay is $831.55 a week.

Take-home pay by salary

These figures come straight from the Washington paycheck calculator. All rows are for a single filer paid every two weeks in 2026, with no other deductions.

At $200,000 the Paid Leave figure has hit its cap. WA Cares keeps rising.

How Washington compares

The lack of an income tax is worth real money. The same $60,000 single filer in Indianapolis takes home $1,825.29 a paycheck after Indiana’s state and county income taxes. In Washington it’s $1,906.06, which is $80.77 more every two weeks, or about $2,100 a year. You can run the other side yourself with our Indiana paycheck calculator or Maryland paycheck calculator.

A paycheck isn’t the whole picture. Washington raises much of its revenue through sales tax, which you pay when you spend. If you need to pull the tax out of a receipt total, the reverse sales tax calculator does it.

How pay frequency changes the paycheck

The yearly total stays the same. Only the slice changes. For the $60,000 example:

If you’re paid every two weeks, two months of the year have three paydays. The business days calculator helps you count working days in a pay period.

Reading your result

The Washington paycheck calculator shows the same lines, in the same order, as most pay stubs.

• Gross pay. Your pay for the period before anything comes out.
• Federal income tax. Withholding worked out from your W-4. It’s an advance on your tax bill, and the final amount is settled when you file.
• Social Security and Medicare. Often grouped as “FICA” on a stub.
• WA Paid Leave premium. Stubs may label it “WA PFML”, “Paid Family Leave” or similar.
• WA Cares Fund. Sometimes labelled “WA LTC” or “Long-term care”.
• Workers’ comp (L&I). Only if you entered an amount.
• Retirement and benefits. Your own choices, shown after the taxes.
• Take-home pay. What reaches your bank account.

The bar under the headline shows how your gross pay divides up. “You keep” is take-home pay as a share of gross. Open “Show the working” to see how each figure was reached.

If your real paycheck is different

A few dollars either way is normal. A bigger gap usually has one of these causes:

1. Your W-4 says something else. An old W-4, a ticked Step 2 box or an extra amount in Step 4(c) all change federal withholding.
2. Benefits you forgot. Dental, vision, life insurance, an HSA or a transit pass.
3. A bonus or overtime in the period. One-off pay is often withheld at a different rate.
4. Your employer covers a premium. Some pay the employee’s Paid Leave share as a benefit.
5. You’ve passed a cap. Late in the year, high earners stop paying Social Security and Paid Leave.

Who a Washington paycheck calculator helps

• Job seekers comparing an offer in Seattle, Spokane or Tacoma with one in a state that taxes income.
• People moving to Washington who want to know what “no income tax” does to a real paycheck.
• Hourly workers checking what a raise or extra overtime is worth after deductions.
• Anyone reading a first Washington pay stub and wondering what the two state lines are.
• Small employers explaining deductions to new staff.

Workers’ compensation (L&I)

Washington runs its own workers’ compensation system through the Department of Labor & Industries, and part of the premium can be deducted from your pay. The amount depends on your job’s risk classification and the hours you work, so there’s no single rate we could apply for you. If your pay stub shows an L&I or “workers’ comp” deduction, type that amount into the calculator. If it doesn’t, leave the field at zero.

Ways to raise your take-home pay

• Check your W-4. If you get a large federal refund every year, you’re withholding more than you owe. The Step 3 dependent credit and Step 4 adjustments change it.
• Use pre-tax benefits. Health insurance premiums, an HSA or an FSA paid through a Section 125 plan lower federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare.
• Know what a 401(k) does. Contributions lower your federal income tax now. They lower take-home pay by less than the amount you put in. Our Coast FIRE calculator shows what those contributions grow into.
• Don’t expect the state premiums to move. Paid Leave and WA Cares are charged on gross wages. Retirement contributions don’t reduce them.

What this calculator doesn’t cover

• Washington, DC. This is for Washington State. The District of Columbia has its own income tax.
• Tips. Paid Leave premiums aren’t charged on tips. If tips are part of your pay, your Paid Leave line will be a little lower than shown.
• Bonuses and commissions. Employers often withhold federal tax on these at a flat supplemental rate.
• Living in Oregon or Idaho. If you live in another state and work in Washington, your home state may tax your wages. That isn’t modelled.
• Year-to-date effects. Social Security and Paid Leave stop mid-year for high earners. The calculator spreads the yearly total evenly across paychecks.
• Self-employment. Contractors pay self-employment tax and aren’t automatically in either state programme.

Treat what the Washington paycheck calculator gives you as an estimate. Your employer’s payroll system has the final word.

Sources

• Washington Department of Revenue, “Income tax”: no individual income tax; 9.9% tax on adjusted gross income above $1 million from January 1, 2028 (Senate Bill 6346). Read October 6, 2026.
• Washington Employment Security Department, paidleave.wa.gov: 2026 premium rate of 1.13%, employee share 71.43%, employer share 28.57%, Social Security cap $184,500, tips excluded, small-employer rule; WA Cares premium of 0.58% with no cap. Read October 6, 2026.
• WA Cares Fund, wacaresfund.wa.gov: who contributes, exemptions, contributions from July 2023.
• IRS Publication 15-T (2026), percentage method, and Publication 15: federal withholding, Social Security and Medicare.