The 2026 Take-Home Pay Report

Two people with the same $100,000 salary can take home paychecks that differ by $7,848 a year, based on nothing but where they live. We ran every state's 2026 tax rules through our calculator to see exactly how much each one takes.

Key findings

• Oregon takes the biggest bite at every income we tested. A single worker earning $75,000 there pays $5,580 in state taxes, 7.4% of their pay.
• 7 states take nothing at all. In Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming, a $75,000 salary nets $61,593, $5,580 more than in Oregon.
• The gap grows fast with income: $3,554 a year at $50,000, $7,848 at $100,000, and $24,062 at $250,000.
• New York City is harsher than any state. State and city tax on a $100,000 salary comes to $8,744, versus $7,848 in Oregon.
• "No income tax" isn't always zero. Washington has no income tax, but its paid leave and long-term care programs take $1,040 from a $75,000 paycheck. 16 states withhold for programs like these.
• North Dakota is the lightest income-tax state. It taxes nothing on the first $49,575 of taxable income, so a $75,000 earner there pays just $182.
• The typical burden is $2,481 at $75,000, averaged across all 51 jurisdictions, and 18 states take more than $3,000.

The gap between the best and worst state

Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare are identical in every state, so every dollar of difference below comes from state and local taxes. Because most state taxes are progressive, the spread widens as income rises.

Full ranking

State and local tax, including mandatory state payroll programs, for a single filer in 2026. Ranked from lowest to highest at $75,000. * Local income taxes are common in this state but not included.

Families: a married couple earning $150,000

For a married couple filing jointly with two children and one $150,000 income, take-home pay ranges from $127,585 in the no-tax states to $116,375 in Oregon. The highest state burdens for this family are in Oregon ($11,210), Maryland ($10,322), Delaware ($8,615).

The payroll taxes nobody talks about

Income tax gets the attention, but 16 states also withhold for disability insurance, paid family leave, long-term care or unemployment insurance. On a $75,000 salary the biggest are:

• Washington: $1,040 a year (WA Paid Family & Medical Leave, WA Cares long-term care)
• California: $975 a year (CA SDI (disability & paid family leave))
• Rhode Island: $825 a year (Rhode Island TDI)
• Oregon: $525 a year (Paid Leave Oregon, Oregon statewide transit tax)
• New Jersey: $505 a year (NJ disability insurance (TDI), NJ family leave insurance (FLI), NJ unemployment & workforce (UI/WF/SWF))
• Connecticut: $375 a year (CT Paid Leave)

California's disability insurance has no wage cap, so a $250,000 earner there pays $3,250 a year into it.

What changed for 2026

Eight states cut income tax rates on January 1, 2026: Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and Oklahoma. Ohio switched to a flat tax, bringing the number of flat-tax states to 15. Three more states cut rates in March 2026, retroactive to January 1: South Carolina (top rate from 6% to 5.21%, with a new state deduction in place of the federal one), West Virginia (every rate down 5%) and Utah (4.5% to 4.45%). Among them, Arizona has the lowest rate at 2.50%. On the federal side, the standard deduction rose to $16,100 for single filers and the Social Security wage cap rose to $184,500.

How we did this

Every figure comes from the same engine as our paycheck calculator. We used IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 for federal brackets, the Tax Foundation's 2026 state income tax table, and 2026 rate notices from state labor departments for payroll programs. Each scenario assumes wage income only and the standard deduction, with no 401(k) or other pre-tax deductions. Maryland includes its typical 3.2% county tax. Other local income taxes (in states marked with *) are left out, and New York is shown without New York City tax. The full method is on our methodology page.

Use this data

Journalists, researchers and bloggers are welcome to use these numbers. Download the full dataset as CSV (all states, five salary levels, plus the family scenario). The data is free to use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Please credit NetPayMath with a link to this page.

Want the numbers for a specific salary or state? Try the salary after tax tables or compare any two states.