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

$18.50 an hour is how much a month?

$18.5/hour, a month
$3,207a month, before tax
$2,758 a month after federal tax and FICA · $38,480 a year
Before tax, a month$38,480 a year ÷ 12$3,207
After tax, a monthfederal income tax and FICA only — no state tax$2,758
A year, before tax18.5 × 2,080 hours$38,480
A year, after tax14% withheld$33,099
Federal income tax−$2,438
Social Security + Medicare7.65% of wages−$2,944
Per hour, after taxagainst $18.5 on paper$15.91

Notes

  • $18.5 an hour is $3,207 a month before tax, working forty hours a week. The arithmetic is $38,480 a year divided across twelve equal months.
  • A month is not four weeks of pay. Four weekly cheques is $2,960, but a year holds 52 weeks rather than 48, so the true monthly average is $3,207. Paid fortnightly you get 26 cheques, and twice a year one calendar month contains three of them.
  • After tax it is $2,758 a month. That is federal income tax of $2,438 and FICA of $2,944 over the year — 14% 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 $27.75 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week adds $7,215 a year — more than a 10% raise, for 12.5% more time.

The short answer

$18.50 an hour is $3,207 a month before tax, at forty hours a week — $2,758 after federal income tax and FICA.

Over a year that is $38,480 gross and $33,099 in hand, with 14% withheld.

Where it goes

Line A year
Gross $38,480
Federal income tax −$2,438
Social Security + Medicare −$2,944
Take-home $33,099

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 $2,758 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 $27.75 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week is $7,215 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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