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

$20.50 an hour is how much biweekly?

$20.5/hour, biweekly
$1,640biweekly, before tax
$1,402 biweekly after federal tax and FICA · $42,640 a year
Before tax, biweekly$42,640 a year ÷ 26$1,640
After tax, biweeklyfederal income tax and FICA only — no state tax$1,402
A year, before tax20.5 × 2,080 hours$42,640
A year, after tax14.5% withheld$36,441
Federal income tax−$2,937
Social Security + Medicare7.65% of wages−$3,262
Per hour, after taxagainst $20.5 on paper$17.52

Notes

  • $20.5 an hour is $1,640 biweekly before tax, working forty hours a week. The arithmetic is $42,640 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 $1,402 biweekly. That is federal income tax of $2,937 and FICA of $3,262 over the year — 14.5% 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 $30.75 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week adds $7,995 a year — more than a 10% raise, for 12.5% more time.

The short answer

$20.50 an hour is $1,640 biweekly before tax, at forty hours a week — $1,402 after federal income tax and FICA.

Over a year that is $42,640 gross and $36,441 in hand, with 14.5% withheld.

Where it goes

Line A year
Gross $42,640
Federal income tax −$2,937
Social Security + Medicare −$3,262
Take-home $36,441

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 $1,402 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 $30.75 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week is $7,995 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.

Nearby sizes

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