HourlyTallyWhat each job pays per hour, per year, and in your metro.

$11.50 an hour is how much a week?

$11.5/hour, a week
$460a week, before tax
$410 a week after federal tax and FICA · $23,920 a year
Before tax, a week$23,920 a year ÷ 52$460
After tax, a weekfederal income tax and FICA only — no state tax$410
A year, before tax11.5 × 2,080 hours$23,920
A year, after tax10.9% withheld$21,308
Federal income tax−$782
Social Security + Medicare7.65% of wages−$1,830
Per hour, after taxagainst $11.5 on paper$10.24

Notes

  • $11.5 an hour is $460 a week before tax, working forty hours a week. The arithmetic is $23,920 a year divided across fifty-two weeks.
  • Fifty-two weeks, not fifty. Every week of the year counts toward the annual figure, including the ones you take off — if they are paid. Hourly work often is not paid for them, which cuts the year by about 7.7%.
  • After tax it is $410 a week. That is federal income tax of $782 and FICA of $1,830 over the year — 10.9% of gross, and it assumes no state income tax. Nine states take none; the rest take between about 2% and 9.3% more, so this figure is the ceiling rather than the average.
  • FICA is charged from the first dollar. Social Security takes 6.2% and Medicare 1.45%, with no standard deduction shielding either. Income tax does not start until after the $16,100 standard deduction, which is why the total bite at lower wages is mostly FICA rather than income tax.
  • Overtime is where this number actually moves. Hours past forty in a week are paid at $17.25 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week adds $4,485 a year — more than a 10% raise, for 12.5% more time.

The short answer

$11.50 an hour is $460 a week before tax, at forty hours a week — $410 after federal income tax and FICA.

Over a year that is $23,920 gross and $21,308 in hand, with 10.9% withheld.

Where it goes

Line A year
Gross $23,920
Federal income tax −$782
Social Security + Medicare −$1,830
Take-home $21,308

This figure assumes no state income tax

Nine states take none: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. The other 41 take between roughly 2% and 9.3% at the top.

So $410 is a ceiling, not an average. The state-by-state figure has its own page.

FICA comes out of the first dollar

Social Security takes 6.2% of wages and Medicare 1.45%, with no standard deduction shielding either. Income tax does not begin until after the $16,100 standard deduction. At lower wages that makes FICA the larger of the two deductions — the opposite of what most people expect.

Overtime moves this more than a raise would

Hours past forty in a week are paid at $17.25 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week is $4,485 a year — more than a 10% raise, for 12.5% more time.

The threshold is forty hours in a week, not eighty in a fortnight. Fifty hours one week and thirty the next still earns ten hours of overtime, and an employer averaging across the pay period is getting it wrong.

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