Pennsylvania Paycheck Calculator: Estimate Your Take-Home Pay After Taxes

Pennsylvania Paycheck Calculator: A Guide to What’s Withheld

From nurses and doctors at big players like Penn Medicine in Philly or UPMC in Pittsburgh to warehouse crews hustling freight through the Lehigh Valley corridor — Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton are logistics powerhouses for Amazon, UPS, and manufacturing supply chains — Pennsylvania’s workforce covers a massive mix of jobs and paychecks. Every single one of those paychecks is subject to the same lineup of deductions before the net amount hits the bank.

Through this guide, you’ll get a complete understanding of every layer of withholding, including federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), Pennsylvania’s flat 3.07% state income tax, local Earned Income Tax (EIT), and Pennsylvania’s small Unemployment Insurance employee contribution. It will help you understand what ends up in your final take-home pay.

Disclaimer: This page is for informational purposes only and is not tax advice. Tax rules can change, and individual situations vary. For personal tax questions, consider speaking with a qualified tax professional.

How your Pennsylvania paycheck is calculated

Pennsylvania taxes all taxable income at a flat rate of 3.07%, meaning the same percentage applies whether you earn $25,000 or $250,000 per year. That rate applies to taxable income after any allowable deductions, not your gross pay. The flat structure is more predictable than a graduated system, but a complete Pennsylvania pay stub still involves several layers of withholding. Here’s the breakdown.

Part 1: Begin with your gross pay

Gross pay is the total amount you earn before any deductions are taken out. For hourly workers, that includes regular hours plus any overtime. For salaried employees, it is the fixed amount per pay period.

• Pennsylvania minimum wage: $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2006 and matching the federal floor. Tipped employees may be paid as little as $2.83 per hour.
• Statewide rate: There is no statewide, regional, or sector variation. Pennsylvania state law also prevents municipalities from setting their own minimum wage.
• Hourly workers: Multiply regular hours by your rate, then add overtime pay.
• Salaried workers: Your annual salary divided by the number of pay periods.

Part 2: Federal withholding, REV-419, and the Residency Certification Form

Your Form W-4 tells your employer how much federal income tax to withhold from each paycheck. The current W-4 uses dollar amounts rather than allowances, and it accounts for your filing status, estimated income, dependents, additional income sources, and any extra withholding you request.

In Pennsylvania, you may also complete two state-specific forms alongside your W-4:

• Form REV-419 (Employee’s Nonwithholding Application Certificate): Used by employees who qualify for an exemption from Pennsylvania income tax withholding — for example, residents of states with a reciprocal agreement (Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia) who work in Pennsylvania.
• Residency Certification Form: Administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), this form establishes your Political Subdivision (PSD) code and sets the correct local Earned Income Tax (EIT) rate for withholding purposes. Without it, your employer defaults to the work-location non-resident EIT rate, which may not match what you actually owe based on where you live. You should update this form any time you move.

Part 3: Social Security and Medicare withholding (FICA)

Federal income tax withholding uses progressive brackets and is typically the largest single federal deduction on a paycheck. On top of that, Social Security and Medicare taxes — together called FICA — are withheld at fixed rates.

• Social Security: 6.2% on wages up to the annual wage base; your employer matches this amount.
• Medicare: 1.45% on all wages, with no wage ceiling; your employer matches this as well.
• Additional Medicare surcharge: 0.9% on wages that exceed the income thresholds set in the tax code — $200,000 (single filers), $250,000 (married filing jointly), or $125,000 (married filing separately). This surcharge is not employer-matched.

Part 4: Apply Pennsylvania state income tax (flat 3.07%)

Pennsylvania taxes all taxable income at a single flat rate of 3.07%. This rate applies to all eight classes of taxable income for residents, and to Pennsylvania-source income for non-residents. There is no standard deduction and no personal exemption, which means the 3.07% rate applies directly to your full taxable income with only a small number of specific deductions available, such as HSA contributions and qualifying IRC Section 529 tuition contributions.

One important and often-overlooked detail is that Pennsylvania does not conform to federal pre-tax treatment for 401(k) contributions. Employee 401(k) contributions are subject to Pennsylvania income tax at 3.07% in the year they are made. This differs from how federal taxes treat those contributions and affects nearly every Pennsylvania worker contributing to a workplace retirement plan.

For full year-by-year guidance, refer to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue directly.

Part 5: Local Earned Income Tax (EIT) and PA Unemployment Insurance

Pennsylvania operates one of the most extensive local income tax systems in the country. Over 2,500 taxing jurisdictions collect a local Earned Income Tax (EIT) in addition to the state’s 3.07% flat tax. Rates vary by where you live and where you work, and the higher of your resident rate or the work-location non-resident rate generally applies.

On top of state and local income tax, Pennsylvania workers also see a small employee contribution to the state’s Unemployment Compensation (UC) fund — commonly referred to as PA UI. For 2025, the employee contribution rate is 0.07% of total wages, with no wage cap. That works out to about $0.70 per $1,000 of pay, which appears as a small line item on most Pennsylvania pay stubs.

To find the local EIT rate for your specific address, use the Pennsylvania DCED local tax lookup tool.

Combined with FICA (6.2% Social Security + 1.45% Medicare), Pennsylvania’s flat 3.07% state income tax, plus local EIT in many areas and the 0.07% PA UI employee contribution, workers in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh can see a meaningful share of gross pay withheld before take-home pay is calculated.

Where does your income fall in Pennsylvania?

Median household income offers a useful benchmark for understanding where a typical Pennsylvania paycheck stands relative to the broader population.

4 ways your take-home pay can change

Your gross pay sets the ceiling, but several factors determine how much of it you actually keep. Here are four areas where your choices can make a measurable difference.

Why does take-home pay feel different in Pennsylvania?

For most Pennsylvania workers, the deductions on a pay stub look like this: federal income tax, FICA (6.2% Social Security + 1.45% Medicare), Pennsylvania state income tax (a flat 3.07%), local Earned Income Tax (EIT), and the 0.07% PA UI employee contribution. That’s typically four to five separate withholding lines before take-home pay is calculated.

What makes Pennsylvania different is not the number of deductions, but how they are structured. The state uses a flat income tax, so the same 3.07% rate applies to all taxable income regardless of earnings. However, this simplicity at the state level is offset by one of the most extensive local tax systems in the country, with over 2,500 municipalities levying an additional EIT.

In practice, that means your total withholding can vary meaningfully based on location. A worker in Philadelphia, for example, may see a combined state and local rate above 6%, while someone in a smaller municipality may pay closer to 4% in total state and local taxes.

You can see how this plays out across different salaries. A registered nurse in Pittsburgh earning around $90,330 per year and a bicycle repairer earning closer to $36,888 will both pay the same 3.07% state tax rate. However, their total take-home pay can still differ noticeably depending on their local EIT rate and federal withholding.

Workers in states without local income taxes — or without any state income tax at all (like Florida) — may see fewer layers of withholding, which can make their take-home pay feel higher even at similar salary levels.