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

$12.50 an hour is how much biweekly?

$12.5/hour, biweekly
$1,000biweekly, before tax
$885 biweekly after federal tax and FICA · $26,000 a year
Before tax, biweekly$26,000 a year ÷ 26$1,000
After tax, biweeklyfederal income tax and FICA only — no state tax$885
A year, before tax12.5 × 2,080 hours$26,000
A year, after tax11.5% withheld$23,021
Federal income tax−$990
Social Security + Medicare7.65% of wages−$1,989
Per hour, after taxagainst $12.5 on paper$11.07

Notes

  • $12.5 an hour is $1,000 biweekly before tax, working forty hours a week. The arithmetic is $26,000 a year divided across twenty-six fortnightly paycheques.
  • Twenty-six paycheques, not twenty-four. Fortnightly pay is not the same as twice-monthly pay: 26 cheques against 24. Two months a year carry a third cheque, and budgets built on "two a month" are wrong in both directions in those months.
  • After tax it is $885 biweekly. That is federal income tax of $990 and FICA of $1,989 over the year — 11.5% 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 $18.75 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week adds $4,875 a year — more than a 10% raise, for 12.5% more time.

The short answer

$12.50 an hour is $1,000 biweekly before tax, at forty hours a week — $885 after federal income tax and FICA.

Over a year that is $26,000 gross and $23,021 in hand, with 11.5% withheld.

Where it goes

Line A year
Gross $26,000
Federal income tax −$990
Social Security + Medicare −$1,989
Take-home $23,021

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 $885 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 $18.75 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week is $4,875 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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