2026 Massachusetts paycheck calculator
Massachusetts taxes wages at 5 percent, and income over $1,107,750 pays 9 percent.
Updated for 2026Checked Oct 29, 2026 against IRS and Massachusetts Department of Revenue sourcesHow we check
Your take-home pay
$1,219.50
per paycheck, paid every two weeks
- Gross pay
- $1,500.00
- Federal income tax
- $96.15
- Social Security
- $93.00
- Medicare
- $21.75
- County tax
- Choose your county
- Massachusetts paid leave
- $6.90
- Take-home
- $1,219.50
Massachusetts paid leave stops once your 2026 pay passes $184,500.
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Take-home pay $1,219.50
Massachusetts pay rules at a glance
| State income tax | Rates rise with pay Source |
| County or local tax | None Source |
| Disability or paid leave | Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave: 0.46% of pay, on the first $184,500 of pay in a calendar year Source |
| Minimum wage | $15.00 an hour Source |
| Tipped minimum cash wage | $6.75 an hour, before tips Source |
| Final paycheck if you are let go | In full on the day of discharge. Source |
| Final paycheck if you quit | In full on the next regular payday, or the following Saturday if there is no regular payday. Source |
What comes out of a Massachusetts paycheck
On $1,500 every two weeks, single, a Massachusetts worker keeps $1,219.50.
Massachusetts taxes wages at a flat 5 percent. In 2026, income above $1,107,750 pays an extra 4 percent surtax, for 9 percent on that slice. Employers use the percentage method in the Department of Revenue's Circular M.
Exemptions come from Form M-4. You claim one for yourself and, if you are married, enter 4 for a spouse, which adjusts withholding for the $4,400 spouse exemption. Each dependent adds one exemption. With more than one exemption, each extra one lowers the wages taxed by $19 a week. A worker with a dependent under 12 may claim one more, but the calculator does not ask ages, so it leaves that out. A head of household fills in the oval on line A.
One feature is unusual. Circular M lets withholding subtract up to $2,000 a year for Social Security and Medicare you pay. The calculator spreads that $2,000 evenly across paychecks, the way the department's own tables are built. A payroll that tracks the running total would subtract the full amount sooner, so a high earner's stub can differ.
County and local taxes
Massachusetts cities and towns cannot create an income tax on their own. The home rule amendment to the state constitution grants no city or town the power to levy, assess, and collect taxes, and Circular M lists no local income tax.
A Massachusetts stub therefore carries the state's deductions only, and the result needs nothing added.
Disability and paid leave
Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave lets an employer take up to 0.46 percent of your wages in 2026, on wages up to the Social Security limit of $184,500. That is the most an employer may withhold, and an employer can choose to pay part or all of it, so some paychecks show less. The calculator shows the maximum. The split between family and medical leave changes on January 1, 2027, but the worker's total stays 0.46 percent. The program pays part of your wages during medical leave and family leave.
Final pay and the minimum wage
The Massachusetts minimum is $15.00 an hour, and a tipped job pays a $6.75 cash wage.
A fired worker must be paid in full on the day of discharge. A worker who quits is owed full pay on the next regular payday, or on the following Saturday if there is no regular payday.
Nearby states
Sources and checks
Checked on Oct 29, 2026. Source: Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Circular M, "Massachusetts Income Tax Withholding Tables at 5.0% Effective January 1, 2026" (Rev. 12/25), page 12, percentage method step 4 ("the 2026 inflation-adjusted threshold for the 4% surtax") (www.mass.gov/doc/massachusetts-circular-m-income-tax-withholding-tables-at-50-effective-january-1-2026/download, fetched and read Oct 29, 2026).
Local taxes: Massachusetts Constitution, Amendment Article 89 (home rule), section 7 (malegislature.gov/Laws/Constitution, fetched and read Oct 29, 2026): nothing in the article grants any city or town the power "to levy, assess and collect taxes," so cities and towns cannot create an income tax on their own; no local income tax appears in Circular M (Rev. 12/25).
Disability and paid leave: Department of Family and Medical Leave, "Paid Family and Medical Leave employer contribution rates and calculator" (www.mass.gov/info-details/paid-family-and-medical-leave-employer-contribution-rates-and-calculator, fetched and read Oct 29, 2026): 2026 total rate 0.88 percent; up to 100 percent of the family leave part (0.18 percent of wages) and up to 40 percent of the medical leave part (0.28 percent) can be withheld from the worker; "Individual contributions are capped by the Social Security taxable maximum"; SSA contribution and benefit base table (www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/cbb.html, fetched Oct 29, 2026): $184,500 for 2026.
Minimum wage: Mass.gov, "Massachusetts law about minimum wage" (www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-minimum-wage, fetched Oct 29, 2026): "Effective January 1, 2023, the minimum wage is $15.00 per hour and the service rate is $6.75 (applied to workers who provide services to customers and who make more than $20 a month in tips)." No scheduled increase was found on the page.
Final paycheck: Massachusetts General Laws chapter 149, section 148 (malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXI/Chapter149/Section148, fetched and read Oct 29, 2026): "any employee leaving his employment shall be paid in full on the following regular pay day, and, in the absence of a regular pay day, on the following Saturday; and any employee discharged from such employment shall be paid in full on the day of his discharge."
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.
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