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

$16.50 an hour is how much biweekly?

$16.5/hour, biweekly
$1,320biweekly, before tax
$1,144 biweekly after federal tax and FICA · $34,320 a year
Before tax, biweekly$34,320 a year ÷ 26$1,320
After tax, biweeklyfederal income tax and FICA only — no state tax$1,144
A year, before tax16.5 × 2,080 hours$34,320
A year, after tax13.3% withheld$29,756
Federal income tax−$1,938
Social Security + Medicare7.65% of wages−$2,625
Per hour, after taxagainst $16.5 on paper$14.31

Notes

  • $16.5 an hour is $1,320 biweekly before tax, working forty hours a week. The arithmetic is $34,320 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 $1,144 biweekly. That is federal income tax of $1,938 and FICA of $2,625 over the year — 13.3% 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 $24.75 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week adds $6,435 a year — more than a 10% raise, for 12.5% more time.

The short answer

$16.50 an hour is $1,320 biweekly before tax, at forty hours a week — $1,144 after federal income tax and FICA.

Over a year that is $34,320 gross and $29,756 in hand, with 13.3% withheld.

Where it goes

Line A year
Gross $34,320
Federal income tax −$1,938
Social Security + Medicare −$2,625
Take-home $29,756

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 $1,144 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 $24.75 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week is $6,435 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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