Methodology
Updated · Radif Partners
Where the figures come from, how they are built, and what they cannot tell you.
Where the figures come from
Federal brackets and the standard deduction come from the IRS revenue procedures for the tax year named on the page. The Social Security wage base and the Medicare rates come from the Social Security Administration. State rates come from each state's own tax authority, and the District of Columbia is treated as a state.
Median salaries come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme, which surveys employers rather than asking workers.
How take-home pay is computed
Taxable income is the gross salary less the standard deduction. Federal tax is then computed band by band rather than at a single rate, which is why the effective rate is always below the marginal one. Social Security takes 6.2 per cent up to the annual wage base, Medicare 1.45 per cent with no cap, and the state layer is added last.
The default scenario is a single filer with no dependants, no pre-tax retirement contribution and no credit. Local and city taxes are included only where they are large enough to change the answer.
What the numbers cannot tell you
An estimate describes a standard situation. Filing jointly, dependants, a 401(k) contribution, a health savings account, equity compensation, self-employment income or a mid-year move across state lines all move the result, sometimes by thousands of dollars.
Nothing on this site is tax advice, and no figure here replaces a return prepared from your actual documents.
Updates and corrections
Pages are reviewed when the IRS publishes its annual indexation, when a state changes its rates, and at least once a year otherwise. Each page carries the date of its last real change rather than today's date, so that an unchanged page does not pass for a fresh one.
If a figure looks wrong, write to hello@salaryafter.com naming the page and, where possible, the publication you believe it contradicts. We check it against the source, correct it if the error is confirmed, and carry the correction across to every page using the same figure.
Official sources
Federal brackets and deductions: Internal Revenue Service. Social Security wage base and Medicare rates: Social Security Administration. Median salaries by occupation: Bureau of Labor Statistics.