Paycheck Guides
Understand how your take-home pay comes together, what changes it, and how to keep more of every paycheck.
Understanding Your Paycheck
Take-Home Pay Guide
How your paycheck comes together from gross pay through federal, state, and FICA taxes, plus deductions.
How to Read a Pay Stub
Every line on your pay stub explained — earnings, taxes, deductions, YTD totals, and net pay.
Salary vs. Hourly Take-Home Pay
How salary and hourly workers’ take-home pay differs, with worked examples.
How Bonuses Are Taxed
The 22% flat rate vs. aggregate method, and why your bonus withholding is higher than expected.
Is Overtime Worth It After Taxes?
What an extra shift actually puts in your pocket — including the new federal OBBBA overtime deduction, FICA, and state tax.
Overtime Paycheck Guide
See what overtime actually adds to your take-home with multi-tier OT support.
Biweekly vs. Semimonthly Pay
How pay frequency (26 vs. 24 paychecks) affects your per-paycheck amount, taxes, and deductions.
Tax Basics
What Is FICA on My Paycheck?
Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) explained — when they stop, what reduces them.
Why Is My Paycheck So Small?
Where every dollar of your paycheck actually goes — federal, state, FICA, and deductions.
Why Did My Paycheck Change?
Eight common reasons your take-home pay changed and how to diagnose what happened.
How 401(k) Affects Your Paycheck
Traditional vs. Roth 401(k) — how each type changes your taxes and take-home differently.
Paycheck Deductions Explained
Pre-tax vs. after-tax, every deduction type, and which ones save you the most in taxes.
Take-Home Strategies
OBBBA Federal Overtime Deduction
No Tax on Overtime Explained
What the OBBBA federal overtime deduction actually puts back in your paycheck — who qualifies, worked examples, and what most calculators get wrong.
OBBBA State Decoupling Tracker
Which states let you keep the state tax savings on overtime too, and which ones decoupled. Updated April 2026.
Is Overtime Worth It After Taxes?
The real take-home math on an extra shift — including the OBBBA deduction, FICA, state tax, and the Social Security wage cap.
Box 14 W-2 Overtime Explained
How to find or reconstruct your qualified overtime number on your W-2 for the OBBBA deduction.
OBBBA Overtime for Warehouse Workers
Peak-season math, Box 14, and what to do if your 2025 W-2 didn’t include the qualified overtime line.
Industry Paycheck Guides
Paycheck Guide for Nurses
How shift differentials, overtime, per diem, union dues, and 403(b) contributions affect your nursing take-home pay.
Paycheck Guide for Warehouse Workers
How overtime surges, shift premiums, attendance bonuses, and temp-to-perm transitions affect your warehouse paycheck.
Paycheck Guide for Retail & Hospitality Workers
How variable hours, tips, holiday pay, multiple jobs, and seasonal swings affect your retail or hospitality paycheck.
Paycheck Guide for Trades & Manufacturing
How shift differentials, prevailing wage, hazard pay, union dues, and per diem affect your trades or manufacturing paycheck.