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

$21.50 an hour is how much a month?

$21.5/hour, a month
$3,727a month, before tax
$3,176 a month after federal tax and FICA · $44,720 a year
Before tax, a month$44,720 a year ÷ 12$3,727
After tax, a monthfederal income tax and FICA only — no state tax$3,176
A year, before tax21.5 × 2,080 hours$44,720
A year, after tax14.8% withheld$38,113
Federal income tax−$3,186
Social Security + Medicare7.65% of wages−$3,421
Per hour, after taxagainst $21.5 on paper$18.32

Notes

  • $21.5 an hour is $3,727 a month before tax, working forty hours a week. The arithmetic is $44,720 a year divided across twelve equal months.
  • A month is not four weeks of pay. Four weekly cheques is $3,440, but a year holds 52 weeks rather than 48, so the true monthly average is $3,727. Paid fortnightly you get 26 cheques, and twice a year one calendar month contains three of them.
  • After tax it is $3,176 a month. That is federal income tax of $3,186 and FICA of $3,421 over the year — 14.8% 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 $32.25 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week adds $8,385 a year — more than a 10% raise, for 12.5% more time.

The short answer

$21.50 an hour is $3,727 a month before tax, at forty hours a week — $3,176 after federal income tax and FICA.

Over a year that is $44,720 gross and $38,113 in hand, with 14.8% withheld.

Where it goes

Line A year
Gross $44,720
Federal income tax −$3,186
Social Security + Medicare −$3,421
Take-home $38,113

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 $3,176 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 $32.25 for non-exempt workers. Five overtime hours a week is $8,385 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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