Hourly pay after taxes in Alabama
$20 an hour in Alabama comes to $1,304.09 every two weeks after federal and state taxes, before any local tax, for a single person working full time.
Updated for 2026Checked Oct 29, 2026 against IRS and Alabama Department of Revenue sourcesHow we check
Take-home pay by hourly wage, 2026
| Wage | Two weeks | Month | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| $7.25 | $516.82 | $1,120 | $13,437 |
| $18.00 | $1,182.57 | $2,562 | $30,747 |
| $20.00 | $1,304.09 | $2,826 | $33,906 |
| $22.00 | $1,425.61 | $3,089 | $37,066 |
| $25.00 | $1,607.89 | $3,484 | $41,805 |
| $30.00 | $1,911.69 | $4,142 | $49,704 |
| $35.00 | $2,192.47 | $4,750 | $57,004 |
| $40.00 | $2,458.27 | $5,326 | $63,915 |
| $50.00 | $2,989.87 | $6,478 | $77,737 |
Every column after the wage is take-home pay. Each row assumes 40 hours a week all year, one paycheck every two weeks, single, no dependents, and no benefits taken out. The monthly and yearly columns are that paycheck times 26. Use the paycheck calculator for your own hours and deductions.
Alabama's city and county occupational taxes on wages are not in these figures. Birmingham charges 1 percent of pay for work done in the city, and Bessemer, Gadsden, Auburn, Opelika, and Macon County are reported to charge one too, though their rates are not confirmed here. See Alabama's local tax rules, or try the paycheck calculator.
What comes out of an hourly paycheck
At $25 an hour, a two-week paycheck in Alabama starts at $2,000.00 and ends at $1,607.89.
| Federal income tax | $156.15 |
| Social Security | $124.00 |
| Medicare | $29.00 |
| Alabama income tax | $82.96 |
Four things leave an Alabama hourly check: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and Alabama's own income tax. The state taxes wages at 2, 4, and 5 percent, and the 5 percent rate applies to taxable income over $3,000 ($6,000 for married couples). Alabama also lets you subtract the federal income tax withheld from your pay before its own tax is figured, which trims the state bill. No disability or paid leave deduction comes out of an Alabama check.
The table therefore reads close to a plain federal-plus-payroll-tax picture, with one state line that grows with pay until it settles at the top rate.
What changes your number
Where you work inside Alabama can matter as much as the wage. Some cities and counties charge an occupational tax on wages earned there, and the figures on this page leave every one of them out. Birmingham's is 1 percent of pay for work done in the city.
The state's own tax is easier to predict. Because Alabama lets you subtract the federal income tax withheld, anything that lowers your federal withholding, such as a dependent credit on your federal W-4, shrinks the amount Alabama taxes as well. Past the first few thousand dollars of taxable income every extra dollar meets the same 5 percent rate.
Hours matter too. At $20 an hour and 30 hours a week instead of 40, a two-week paycheck in Alabama comes to $1,000.72.
The minimum wage in Alabama
The minimum wage in Alabama is $7.25 an hour, and a full-time worker at $7.25 takes home about $1,120 a month. Alabama has no state minimum wage law, so the federal rate covers workers whose employers fall under federal law, and a state statute bars cities and counties from requiring any other wage.
Sources and checks
Checked on Oct 29, 2026. Source: Alabama Department of Revenue, Withholding Tax Tables and Instructions for Employers and Withholding Agents (cover: "REVISED January 2026"), "Formula For Computing Alabama Withholding Tax", PDF page 8 (printed page 7): Line 2B "Employee's annual Federal withholding tax"; Line 5 rates "1st $500 2%, Next $2,500 4%, Over $3,000 5%" for "0", "S", "H" or "MS" and "1st $1,000 2%, Next $5,000 4%, Over $6,000 5%" for "M" (revenue.alabama.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/whbooklet_0126.pdf, saved as data/sources/alabama/whbooklet_0126.pdf, read Oct 29, 2026).
Disability: Alabama runs no state disability or paid-family-leave program paid by an employee payroll deduction: the 2026 withholding booklet (saved as data/sources/alabama/whbooklet_0126.pdf, read Oct 29, 2026) covers state income tax as the only state withholding and notes that unemployment tax is a separate employer tax handled by the Alabama Department of Labor (PDF page 3); no Alabama law or agency page describing an employee-paid program was found.
Local taxes: Birmingham City Code, Title 3A, Chapter 2, Occupational Tax (library.municode.com/al/birmingham/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PT1THCOGEOR_TIT3ARETA_CH2OCTA, saved as data/sources/alabama/birmingham-code-title3-chapter2-occupational-tax.txt, read Oct 29, 2026), Sec. 3A-2-5(a): "Each employer shall deduct from each payment of gross receipts and compensation due each employee the amount of the occupational license fees measured by one percent of the compensation due each employee". The state withholding booklet (PDF page 3) says "local occupational taxes are not administered by the Department of Revenue" and "To obtain information concerning local occupational tax, you must contact the city or county which is administering the tax." Other cities and counties are in openQuestions.
Minimum wage: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, "State Minimum Wage Laws" (dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state, "Updated July 1, 2026", saved as data/sources/alabama/dol-whd-state-minimum-wage.html, read Oct 29, 2026): "Alabama: No state minimum wage law. Employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act must pay the current Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour." Alabama Code Section 25-7-41 (alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=25-7-41, saved as data/sources/alabama/code-of-alabama-25-7-41.txt, read Oct 29, 2026) bars cities and counties from requiring any wage "that is not required by state or federal law", so no local minimum wage applies. No scheduled change.
Federal withholding: IRS Publication 15-T (2026), Worksheet 1A and its "2026 Percentage Method Tables for Automated Payroll Systems and Withholding on Periodic Payments of Pensions and Annuities," pages 10 to 12. Fetched directly from irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15t.pdf and transcribed Oct 28, 2026.
Every figure above comes from the sources listed here. How we check our numbers.
Spot a wrong number? Email contact@paydeskcalc.com with the page and the figure.