Minimum wage by state

The floor in 2026: $7.25 federal, $18.40 at the top

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has not moved since 24 July 2009 — the longest freeze since the Fair Labor Standards Act was written in 1938. States have filled the gap: 31 of the 51 jurisdictions now set a higher floor, 5 have no law of their own (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee) and the rest sit at or below the federal figure, which means the federal figure governs. The highest is District of Columbia at $18.40; the table above ranks all of them and re-sorts by what they leave after tax.

Full time, the federal floor is $15,080 a year of gross pay and $13,926 after federal tax and FICA in a state with no income tax. The top of the table is $38,272 gross and $31,802 net. That gap — $17,875 a year — is the single largest wage-policy difference between two American workers doing the same job.

Why the ranking changes when you rank by take-home

A minimum wage is a gross figure, and the states with the highest floors are not always the ones that leave the most. Sort the table by take-home and the nine states with no income tax climb, because at $15 an hour a state income tax of two or three per cent is real money on a $31,200 salary. Sort it by purchasing power — the wage divided by the state's price level from the Bureau of Economic Analysis — and the order changes again, because a $17.00 floor in an expensive state can buy less than a $13.00 floor in a cheap one.

At every floor in the country, the tax that bites is FICA rather than income tax: 7.65% from the first dollar with no deduction, against a federal income tax that the $16,100 standard deduction largely absorbs. A full-time worker at $7.25 pays $1,154 of FICA and $0 of federal income tax for the year. The earned income credit, which the paycheck cannot see, is what changes that arithmetic for workers with children — and it arrives only at filing.

The tip credit, and the states that refuse it

Federal law lets an employer pay a tipped worker as little as $2.13 an hour in cash and count tips toward the rest, provided the two together reach the minimum wage in every pay period. 7 states do not allow it — Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington — so an employer there pays the full state minimum in cash and tips are on top. For a server the difference is structural: with a tip credit, the tax on the tips is withheld from a cash wage that may be $2.13, which is why a paycheck can read close to zero after a good week; without one, the cash wage covers its own tax.

From 2026 the first $25,000 of reported tips is deductible from federal taxable income in occupations that customarily receive them — at filing, not on the paycheck, and with no effect on FICA. The tip calculator works through the cash paycheck, the employer top-up when tips fall short, and the deduction.

The states that do not have one rate

Several states set the floor by employer size or by region, and the figure that applies is the one for the specific job. New York pays $17.00 in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester and $16.00 elsewhere. Oregon runs three tiers: Portland metro, standard and non-urban. Ohio applies its $11.00 floor only to businesses with gross receipts of $405,000 or more. Montana and Oklahoma keep low sub-tiers for very small businesses that are outside federal coverage — in practice almost nobody, because most employers are covered and must pay $7.25. Each state page carries its own tiers.

Cities above their state

A city or county may set a floor above the state's, and dozens do: Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, the Californian cities, Montgomery County in Maryland and many others. Where a local ordinance exists, it beats both the state and federal figures inside its boundary. This site publishes the state and federal figures and is reading the local ordinances one at a time before publishing them, for the same reason the state figures waited for the Department of Labor table: a wrong minimum wage costs the person reading it money. What the city pages do carry today is the local *income tax*, which is a different thing — see the guide to local income taxes.

Where these figures come from

The state figures on this page and the 51 state pages come from the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — State Minimum Wage Laws (consolidated table), updated 2026-07-01 and read 2026-09-15. That is an official federal publication of state law, not each state's own notice, so the figures are marked «compiled» rather than «verified» and will be upgraded state by state as each labour department's own publication is read — the same standard the income tax pages are held to. The federal minimum and the tip credit come from the Fair Labor Standards Act itself. If a figure here disagrees with your state's own notice, tell us: it is checked against the source and published on the corrections page.

The three taxes on a paycheck, and why they behave differently

Federal income tax is progressive and starts from zero: the first $16,100 a single filer earns in 2026 is untaxed because that is the standard deduction, and the rate then climbs through seven brackets from 10% to 37%. It is the only line your W-4 changes. FICA is flat from the first dollar — 6.2% for Social Security up to $184,500 of wages and 1.45% for Medicare without limit — and no form changes it. State income tax is whatever your state decided: nothing in 9 states, one flat rate in 13, brackets in the other 29, and 11 states let a city or county add a line of their own.

On the $580.00 biweekly example above: $0.00 of federal withholding, $44.37 of FICA and $0.00 of Texas tax. Keeping them on separate lines is the point: a 401(k) contribution moves the first and third but not the second; a raise moves all three at different rates; the Social Security cap moves only the second. A single «taxes» figure hides which lever does what.

What changed in 2026

The standard deduction is $16,100 single, $32,200 joint and $24,150 head of household; every bracket threshold moved up with inflation; the Social Security wage base is $184,500; the 401(k) elective limit is $24,500. Each is read from the document that sets it — IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the SSA's contribution and benefit base, IRS Notice 2025-67 — and listed with its source under the calculator.

The bigger change is the set of new federal deductions: qualified overtime premium pay up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint), reported tips up to $25,000, and $6,000 more for each person aged 65 or over, all phasing out above $150,000 of income. None of them changes what an employer withholds, because Publication 15-T does not know about them; they reduce the tax owed at filing, which is why the calculators on this site show them in the «withholding vs what you owe» box rather than on the paycheck. The what changed in 2026 guide keeps the dated list, including state changes.

A worked example: $15,080 in Texas, paid every two weeks

Take $15,080 a year in Texas, paid every two weeks (26 paychecks), single, standard W-4, no pre-tax deductions. The gross per paycheck is $580.00. Federal income tax withholding, from the 2026 Publication 15-T percentage method, takes $0.00. Social Security takes 6.2% of gross, $35.96, and Medicare 1.45%, $8.41. Texas withholds no income tax. The net deposit is $535.63, 92.3% of gross; over the year that is $13,926 from $15,080, an effective rate of 7.6% on all taxes together. Every line is reproducible from the documents on the sources page, and the table below lists them in the order they appear on a stub.

Two things on that stub are not obvious from the totals. First, the federal line is withholding, not tax: the tables annualise this paycheck as if all 26 were identical, and the year's actual tax, $0, differs from the $0 withheld by $0, which becomes a refund in April. Second, Social Security and Medicare are the same fraction of every paycheck of the year, because the salary is under the wage base, and no form can change them; only Section 125 deductions reduce their base. The reading guide walks each line and names what it should equal.

Nearby hourly rates at 80 hours per two weeks

A dollar an hour more or less changes the every two weeks paycheck by about $80.00 gross and somewhat less net. The ladder below runs the same hours at rates from $7.25 to $17.25 in Texas; the hourly to salary converter turns any rate into a year and the hourly calculator adds overtime and tips.

Nearby salaries: what $25,080 to $50,080 leave in Texas

A raise or a job offer is rarely at the round number on this page, so here is the ladder around it: the same every two weeks paycheck at 3 salaries from $25,080 to $50,080, single, standard W-4, no deductions. The effective rate climbs from 11.2% to 15.3% across the range because federal income tax is progressive while FICA is flat; each extra $10,000 of salary leaves less than the last, and the pay raise calculator prices any step exactly. The salary after tax pages carry the full range, one page per amount.

Reading the ladder the other way answers the interview question: to take home $10,000 more a year in Texas takes a raise of roughly $11,806 in gross at this level, because the new dollars are taxed at the marginal rate rather than the average. The state column stays at zero at every rung; the FICA column grows in a straight line until the wage base. The gross-up calculator runs the reverse computation for any net.

The same paycheck under each filing status

Filing status is the one W-4 line everyone fills in, and it moves the federal line more than most people expect. On $15,080 in Texas, paid every two weeks, a single filer is withheld $0.00 per paycheck; married filing jointly (one income) $0.00, because the joint table doubles the standard deduction to $32,200 and widens every bracket; head of household $0.00, with its $24,150 deduction and its own brackets. Married filing separately uses the single table. Texas has no state line to change. Picking «married» with two incomes and skipping step 2 is the commonest cause of an April bill; the W-4 guide covers the choice.

The last column shows why the status matters beyond the paycheck: the year's federal income tax on $15,080 is $0 single and $0 married filing jointly on one income, a difference of $0 that the W-4 status either delivers through the year or holds back for a refund. Head of household is the status most often missed by single parents, who leave $0 a year on the single table. FICA is identical in every row, since it has no status.

The whole year on $15,080: withholding, tax due, and the settlement

26 paychecks of $580.00 withhold $0 of federal income tax over 2026. The tax actually due on the return, with the $16,100 standard deduction and no credits, is $0, so the year ends with a refund of about $0 — the gap between the withholding tables' approximation and the exact computation. The marginal rate on the last dollar is 10%; the effective rate on all taxes together is 7.6%. Social Security applies to every paycheck of the year, because $15,080 is under the $184,500 wage base. The 2026 deductions for overtime premium and tips apply at filing to anyone with qualifying pay; they do not change these paychecks.

Refund or bill: what the year settles

Withholding is a prepayment; the return computes the tax and returns or collects the difference. On $15,080 with these settings the year withholds $0 against $0 due, so the settlement is a refund of about $0. A refund is money lent to the Treasury at no interest for up to sixteen months; a bill is fine up to a point and penalised beyond it. The point is the safe harbour: withholding of at least 90% of this year's tax ($0 here) or 100% of last year's (110% above $150,000 of income) avoids the underpayment penalty, which is interest on each quarter's shortfall. These paychecks clear the 90% harbour on their own.

What makes the settlement move: credits the W-4 does not carry (the earned income credit, education credits, the 2026 overtime and tip deductions), which enlarge the refund; a second income, other income, or too many dependents on the form, which produce the bill; a bonus withheld at the flat 22% when the marginal rate is 10%, which over-withholds at this salary; and a change of job or a partial year, which annualises each paycheck wrongly. The W-4 fixer sets the lines that bring the settlement to zero, or to a chosen refund.

What deductions do to this paycheck

Deductions are where the same salary produces different paychecks. A 6% traditional 401(k) contribution — $34.80 per paycheck on $15,080, well under the $24,500 annual limit — reduces federal taxable wages but not FICA wages, so it costs $34.80 of take-home rather than its face value. A $150 Section 125 deduction for health premiums or an HSA reduces every base including FICA, and costs $138.53. A Roth contribution of the same 6% comes out after tax and costs the full amount now in exchange for tax-free withdrawals later. The table gives each case for this paycheck; the pre-tax deductions calculator runs any amount and the 401(k) calculator draws the whole curve.

The order matters on the stub as well as in the arithmetic. Section 125 items come off first and reduce the FICA wages line, which is why a health premium lowers the Social Security and Medicare figures by 7.65% of itself; the 401(k) comes off next and reduces federal taxable wages only. Both appear in the W-2: box 1 (federal wages) is gross minus both, boxes 3 and 5 (Social Security and Medicare wages) are gross minus the Section 125 items alone. An employer match, where there is one, is added on top of the contribution and never touches the paycheck; the compare two jobs tool values it.

What each W-4 line does to this paycheck

The federal line is the only tax on the stub that a form can change, and each step of the W-4 moves it by a predictable amount. One qualifying child on step 3 lowers withholding by $84.62 per paycheck — the $2,200 credit spread over 26 paychecks — taking the net to $535.63. Checking box 2(c) for a second job raises it by $27.68, because the checkbox table halves the brackets so that each job is withheld as if it earned half the household income. Extra withholding on 4(c) is dollar for dollar. Other income on 4(a) adds the tax on it at the marginal rate; deductions on 4(b) remove it. The table runs each case for $15,080 in Texas; the W-4 fixer computes the combination that makes the year's withholding equal the year's tax.

None of these lines changes the tax; they change when it is paid. Claiming a child that is not yours on step 3, or deductions you will not take on 4(b), enlarges every paycheck and produces the same amount plus a penalty in April. The lawful levers are the ones you are entitled to — the children you have, the deductions you will itemise, the second income you must account for — and the fixer applies exactly those. A new W-4 takes effect from the next payroll run after your employer receives it, and the year-to-date withholding already taken is not recomputed.

$15,080 in Texas against nine other states

Federal tax and FICA are the same everywhere; the state line is what moves. On $15,080 paid every two weeks, the nine states with no wage tax leave $535.63 per paycheck; California leaves $535.63, $0.00 less, or $0 over the year. Flat-rate states sit in between and their rate is the whole story; bracket states depend on the salary. Prices move more than taxes between most of these states, and the state pages carry the BEA price index beside the take-home; the state ranking sorts all 51 for any salary.

Two cautions before reading the table as a moving guide. The state taxes wages where the work is done, with the resident state taxing everything and crediting the work state, so a remote job does not change the column unless you change where you live — and five states apply a «convenience of the employer» rule that keeps taxing remote work done elsewhere. And the no-tax states collect the difference elsewhere: property tax in Texas and New Hampshire, sales tax in Tennessee and Washington. The no-income-tax guide and the local taxes guide cover both.

A raise on $15,080: what arrives

A raise is taxed at the margin, so what reaches the account is the raise minus the marginal federal rate, FICA and the state's marginal rate on the new dollars only. A 3% raise on $15,080 in Texas adds $17.38 of gross to a every two weeks paycheck and $16.05 of net, 92.3% of it; against 3% inflation it is a real raise of about -0.0%. Nothing about the raise changes the tax on the salary below it — the «pushed into a higher bracket» fear describes arithmetic that does not exist in a progressive system. The table runs three sizes; the pay raise calculator runs any, with the inflation figure you enter.

A bonus on top of $15,080

A bonus paid separately is withheld at the flat 22% federal rate plus FICA and state: a $1,000 bonus leaves $703.50 and a $5,000 bonus $3,517.50 in Texas. Paid inside a regular paycheck under the aggregate method, the same bonuses are withheld $105.75 and $905.89 federally instead of $220.00 and $1,100.00, because the combined paycheck is annualised as if it recurred. The tax actually owed is the marginal rate — 10% at this salary — so the $5,000 bonus is really taxed $398.00 federally and the flat method returns $702.00 at filing. The bonus calculator shows both methods for any amount and state.

Common mistakes

Comparing gross floors across states. Rank by take-home and by prices; the order changes twice. Assuming the state figure is the one you must be paid. The highest of federal, state and local applies. Forgetting the city. Dozens of cities sit above their state.

Reading the flat 22% on a bonus as the tax on it. It is withholding; the tax is your marginal rate. Budgeting from the wrong paycheck: biweekly and semi-monthly differ by about 7.7%. Claiming the same child on two W-4s, which under-withholds the household by the credit. Assuming a raise can push you into a bracket that leaves you worse off — in a progressive system it cannot. Forgetting the Social Security cap: above $184,500 the later paychecks are larger, and a budget built on January's paycheck is too tight for December's.