Gross-up calculator
Enter the net that must land in the account. The calculator inverts the full paycheck engine — federal, FICA and state, with your W-4 and pre-tax elections — and returns the smallest gross that reaches it, to the cent.
Result — California — gross-up to a net of $2,500.00 — every two weeks — single
| Line | Per period | Annual |
|---|---|---|
Gross pay (incl. declared tips)Why this line?Your pay before anything is taken out — the starting point of every line below it. Why this rate: Not a tax — it is the amount your employer agreed to pay for the period. What changes it: Hours, salary, overtime and bonuses. Every other line in the result is computed from this amount. Source: IRS — Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (IR-2025-103, 2025-10-09) — verified 2026-10-22. | $3,333.17 | $86,662.42 |
Federal income taxWhy this line?Federal income tax. On an employee paycheck (P1) this is the amount WITHHELD for the period, computed with the IRS Publication 15-T percentage method for automated payroll (Worksheet 1A): the period wage is annualized, adjusted for the Form W-4 entries — Step 4(a) other income added, Step 4(b) deductions and the Step 2 checkbox adjustment subtracted — taxed on the publication's own annual percentage schedules, then divided back by the pay periods, with the Step 3 amount credited per period and any Step 4(c) extra amount added. On the self-employment side (P3) it is the estimated annual liability: income minus the standard deduction, taxed through the 10%-37% brackets for the filing status. Why this rate: Congress sets the rates in the Internal Revenue Code. The IRS publishes the withholding machinery each year in Publication 15-T (2026 edition for 2026 paychecks) and the annual brackets and standard deductions in its yearly revenue procedure (for 2026: Rev. Proc. 2025-32). What changes it: Pay level and frequency, filing status, and the Form W-4 entries (Step 2 checkbox, Step 3 amount, Steps 4(a)/4(b)/4(c)) — and in P3, the one-half SE tax deduction and the QBI deduction, which reduce taxable income before the brackets apply. Source: IRS — Publication 15-T (2026), Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods — verified 2026-10-26. | $393.68 | $10,235.73 |
Social Security (FICA)Why this line?Your Social Security (FICA) contribution: 6.2% of wages, but only on the first $184,500 earned in 2026. It funds Social Security retirement and disability benefits. Why this rate: Set by Congress (IRC §3101): 6.2% employee + 6.2% employer. The $184,500 wage base for 2026 is announced by the Social Security Administration and rises with national wage growth. What changes it: It stops mid-year once cumulative wages (all employers combined, in this engine's liability view) reach the $184,500 wage base; the base is re-set by the SSA every October. Source: SSA 2026 wage base + IRC §3101/3111 rates; cross-checked in J1 correction (IRS/SSA) — verified 2026-10-22. | $206.66 | $5,373.07 |
Medicare (FICA)Why this line?Your Medicare (FICA) contribution: 1.45% of every dollar of wages, with no cap. It funds Medicare health insurance for people 65 and over. Why this rate: Set by Congress (IRC §3101): 1.45% employee + 1.45% employer. There has never been a Medicare wage cap. What changes it: Nothing caps it — it grows dollar-for-dollar with pay. Only the wage amount changes it. Source: IRC §3101/3111 — no wage cap — verified 2026-10-22. | $48.33 | $1,256.61 |
California income taxWhy this line?State income tax on your wages for the state shown — flat in some states (one rate for everyone), progressive in others (brackets like the federal tax), and zero in the nine states that do not tax wages. Why this rate: Each state's legislature sets its own rates, brackets and deductions; the figures here are the state's 2026 parameters as encoded in the data pack. What changes it: The state (each sets its own system), income, the state's standard deduction/exemptions, and state law changes — several states cut rates for 2026. Source: California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) — 2026 indexing announcement (Tax News) and 2026 rate schedules X/Y/Z — verified 2026-10-23. | $141.17 | $3,670.46 |
California SDI (State Disability Insurance)Why this line?California State Disability Insurance (SDI): an employee-paid 1.3% of wages with no cap since 2024, funding short-term disability and Paid Family Leave benefits. Why this rate: Set under the California Unemployment Insurance Code; the EDD publishes the rate each year (1.3% for 2026). What changes it: The rate is set annually by the EDD; it applies to all wages (no ceiling since SB 951 removed the cap). Source: California EDD — 2026 employee SDI rate 1.3%, no wage cap (SB 951 removed the cap) — verified 2026-10-23. | $43.33 | $1,126.61 |
Total deductionsWhy this line?The sum of every deduction line for this paycheck — everything taken out between gross pay and net pay. Why this rate: Not a tax — the subtotal of the lines above it. What changes it: Any of the component lines; it drops noticeably mid-year for high earners once the Social Security cap is reached. Source: IRS — Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (IR-2025-103, 2025-10-09) — verified 2026-10-22. | $833.17 | $21,662.42 |
Net payWhy this line?What actually lands in your bank account for the period: gross pay minus every deduction line above it. Why this rate: Not a tax — it is the remainder after the taxes above are subtracted. What changes it: Any change in gross pay or in any deduction — including mid-year changes like reaching the Social Security cap, which makes net pay jump up. Source: IRS — Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (IR-2025-103, 2025-10-09) — verified 2026-10-22. | $2,500.00 | $65,000.00 |
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Methodology, limits and sources
Rates verified on 2026-10-26 (primary sources listed per line).
Method, declared: bisection on whole cents over the unmodified paycheck engine — the result is the smallest gross whose engine-computed net is at least the target. The search starts at the target itself and doubles its ceiling until the target is reached; the ceiling is $2,000,000 per period, and a target not reached there is reported as an error, never approximated. The solve is exact to the cent whenever a gross lands on the target exactly; where the engine's net jumps over the target (a rounding step), the result says so and shows the achieved net and the exact difference. Verified by a round-trip property bench: for a grid of states, statuses, targets and pre-tax elections, net(gross-up(x)) = x to $0.01. Employer note: the cost of the gross-up itself (the employer's own payroll taxes on the higher gross) is figured by the employer cost calculator, not here.
When a net is promised, someone has to find the gross
Employers gross up when the promise is a net: a relocation bonus that must land as exactly $5,000 in the employee's account, a tax-equalized assignment, a signing bonus advertised after tax. The employer pays the tax on the tax until the net is reached — which is what this calculator solves, to the cent, with the same engine that computes a regular paycheck. Employees use the same math in reverse when negotiating: state the salary you need as a net, and read off the gross that produces it.
Why the gross is higher than a simple division
The naive shortcut — net ÷ (1 − rate) — assumes one flat rate. A real paycheck crosses brackets, hits the Social Security cap partway through the year, and stacks a state layer with its own rules. The bisection here does not assume any of that: it asks the full engine for the net at trial gross amounts until the smallest gross that reaches your target is pinned to the cent.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean to gross up pay?
The employer (or the negotiation) starts from a net amount and pays whatever gross produces it after tax. The tax on the payment is itself taxed, which is why the required gross is always more than the net plus one layer of tax.
How is the gross calculated here?
By inversion, not by formula: the full paycheck engine is run at trial amounts and the gross is bisected down to the smallest cent-amount whose net reaches the target. Brackets, the Social Security cap and state rules are therefore handled exactly as the engine handles a real paycheck.
Why can the net land a cent or two above the target?
Some engine steps round in whole cents (and the IRC §224 tips deduction rounds to dollars), so the net can jump over a target with no gross landing exactly on it. When that happens the calculator returns the smallest gross that reaches at least the target and states the difference — it never hides the gap.
Does grossing up change the employer's cost?
Yes: the employer's own payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare matching, FUTA, SUTA) apply to the higher gross too. The employer cost calculator figures that side.