Paycheck Guides
Understand how your take-home pay is calculated, what changes it, and how to keep more of every paycheck.
Understanding Your Paycheck
Take-Home Pay Calculator
How your paycheck is calculated 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 is calculated differently, with worked examples.
How Bonuses Are Taxed
The 22% flat rate vs. aggregate method, and why your bonus withholding is higher than expected.
How Overtime Affects Your Paycheck
Why your take-home per overtime hour is lower than expected, and how to preview the real impact.
Overtime Paycheck Calculator
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.