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California Hourly Paycheck Calculator
Turn an hourly rate and weekly hours into California take-home pay after federal, state and FICA taxes and state payroll premiums for 2026.
At $25 an hour for 40 hours a week, a single filer in California grosses $2,000 per biweekly paycheck and takes home about $1,620 in 2026 — $20.25 for every hour worked — after $4,060 a year in federal income tax, $3,978 FICA, and $1,160 California state income tax. That take-home already subtracts $676 a year for California's State Disability Insurance (SDI).
Your take-home pay
per paycheck
Federal rate
7.8%
State rate
2.2%
FICA Rate
7.6%
Total rate
17.7%
2026 federal tables from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32; California rates from the state's revenue department and statutes (2026 rates; brackets, standard deduction and exemptions from the latest published state tables, 2025 where the state has not released 2026 figures). Reviewed by Junead Khan. Last updated .
What else comes out of a California paycheck
Beyond income tax and FICA, California employers also withhold these premiums, and the calculator above subtracts them at 2026 employee rates:
- State Disability Insurance (SDI): 1.3% of wages, with no wage cap (some public-school and public-agency employees are not covered and pay nothing)
Rates from edd.ca.gov. They are applied to gross pay, so a section 125 health premium, which some programs exclude, can make the real deduction slightly smaller.
No city or county in California levies its own tax on wages.
Plan around the deposit date
With changing hours, use a conservative reliable deposit for essentials. Build a bill calendar by paycheck and check the hours and deductions on your pay stub before relying on the estimate.
California hourly pay questions.
About $20.25 an hour, or $1,620 per biweekly paycheck on 40 hours a week, for a single filer with no pre-tax deductions in 2026. That is $42,126 a year on $52,000 gross.
Multiply your rate by hours per week and by 52 for annual gross pay, then subtract federal income tax, FICA (7.65% on most wages: Social Security stops at the annual wage base and an extra 0.9% Medicare applies above $200,000), California state income tax and California's State Disability Insurance (SDI). The calculator above does this for any rate, hours and pay frequency. It treats every hour at your base rate, so add overtime premiums to your rate yourself if you regularly work more than 40 hours.
No. California taxes wages the same way whether you are paid hourly or a salary; only the annual total matters. The withholding on each check is based on your projected annual pay.
Progressive rates from 1% to 12.3%; on $25/hour the effective state rate is about 2.23%.
Estimates use 2026 federal and state tax rates and assume the hours you enter every week. Your actual paycheck varies with W-4 settings, overtime, tips, credits, local taxes and employer deductions.
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