Hourly Paycheck Calculator

Knowing what you get paid is easy. Knowing what you’ll take home is another matter. This Hourly Paycheck Calculator will help you determine, in advance, just what your take-home pay will be for a given wage and number of hours worked. It takes into account your taxes, health insurance deductions, retirement contributions, overtime worked and other factors to let you know just what your paycheck will be. This calculator has also been updated to use this year’s tax withholding schedules, which it automatically applies in figuring your take-home pay.

Hourly Paycheck Calculator Overview

Knowing just what your take-home pay will be is one of the mysteries of any new job. You may have a vague sense of what it might be, but may be surprised when it turns out to be significantly more or less than you expected.

Or maybe you work variable hours at an hourly wage and want to know how much your next paycheck will be? There are several situations where this calculator might come in handy for an hourly worker:

  • When you just started a new job and want to see how much your take-home pay will be.
  • When negotiating for a raise and you want to see what the actual benefit would be.
  • If you work irregular hours and want to predict your take home pay for the upcoming pay period
  • If you’re working a bunch of overtime and want to see how much of the additional earnings will actually be going in your pocket
  • If you’re thinking of taking a new job and are trying to decide if it would be worthwhile or not.
  • To see what effect increasing your pre-tax deductions, such as for a 401(k) or other retirement plan, would have on your take-home pay.

Knowing what your take-home pay will be isn’t just to satisfy idle curiosity. It can be very useful in your financial planning. For a new job, it can help you work out a budget. If you’re going to be working overtime, or perhaps having shorter hours this week, it can help you plan ahead so you can manage your spending and bill paying over the next few weeks. And so forth.

Using the Hourly Paycheck Calculator

In addition to your hourly wage and the hours worked, you’ll need to gather some additional information before you get started.

  • The percentage withheld from each check as your 403(b) or other retirement contribution (don’t include your employer’s contribution).
  • The amount taken out of each check that you pay toward an employee health insurance plan (again, don’t include your employer’s share. Leave out any insurance premiums that do not come out of your check, such as for Obamacare).
  • The combined rate you pay for state and local taxes.
  • All your pre- and post-tax deductions from your paycheck.
  • Any after-tax reimbursements you are supposed to receive, such as for mileage driven in your own vehicle.

Enter your information in the boxes indicated. If you are unsure about the definition of any box, click on the title for more information.

The box for “other hours worked” is for any additional work you may have done for the same employer for which you are compensated at a different hourly wage than your regular earnings. This is a fairly unusual situation, though.

The calculator will give you a breakdown of your paycheck in a pie chart so you can see just how much of your total earnings are going to your various deductions. Clicking “View report” will give you the same information in a table format.