2026 Missouri paycheck calculator
Missouri withholding tops out at 4.7 percent, and Kansas City and St. Louis each add a 1 percent earnings tax.
Updated for 2026Checked Oct 29, 2026 against IRS and Missouri Department of Revenue sourcesHow we check
Your take-home pay
$1,255.10
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
- Take-home
- $1,255.10
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Take-home pay $1,255.10
Missouri pay rules at a glance
| State income tax | Rates rise with pay Source |
| County or local tax | Kansas City and St. Louis each charge a 1 percent earnings tax on wages. Kansas City's applies to residents wherever they work and to nonresidents for work done in the city; St. Louis's applies to people who live or work in the city. Employers take it out of each paycheck. No other Missouri city may start one. Source |
| Disability or paid leave | None Source |
| Minimum wage | $15.00 an hour Source |
| Tipped minimum cash wage | $7.50 an hour, before tips Source |
| Final paycheck if you are let go | Due on the day of the discharge. If the worker asks in writing and the pay does not arrive within 7 days, wages keep running at the same rate until paid, for up to 60 days. Source |
| Final paycheck if you quit | No Missouri statute sets a deadline when a worker quits that we could confirm; the employer pays on its normal schedule (see openQuestions). Source |
What comes out of a Missouri paycheck
On $1,500 every two weeks, single, a Missouri worker keeps $1,255.10.
Missouri taxes wages in eight steps for 2026, from 0 percent up to 4.7 percent. The top rate applies to taxable income over $9,436 a year. The rates in between are 2 percent, 2.5 percent, 3 percent, 3.5 percent, 4 percent, and 4.5 percent.
A standard deduction comes off first, based on the box you check on line 1 of Form MO W-4. It is $16,100 a year for single workers, or married workers whose spouse also works. It is $32,200 for married workers whose spouse does not work, and $24,150 for head of household. Because the calculator only asks your filing status, it treats every married worker as having a spouse who does not work. If your spouse works, check the first box on the form and expect more tax to come out than the calculator shows.
The MO W-4 has no dependent line, so children do not change Missouri withholding. Missouri does not subtract federal tax from your wages before figuring its own.
County and local taxes
Kansas City and St. Louis each charge a 1 percent earnings tax on wages, and employers take it out of every paycheck. Kansas City's tax applies to residents wherever they work and to nonresidents for work done in the city. St. Louis's applies to people who live or work in the city.
The calculator does not compute either one, so if you live or work there, expect about 1 percent of your gross pay to come out beyond what the result shows. State law bars other Missouri cities from starting an earnings tax. These two continue only because voters must renew them every five years. News reports say both passed renewals in April 2026, but we could not confirm that from either city's own site.
Final pay and the minimum wage
Missouri's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour as of January 1, 2026, and state law sets no later increase. The tipped cash wage is $7.50 an hour, which is half the minimum, before tips.
If you are discharged, with or without cause, your unpaid wages are due the day you are let go. If you ask in writing and the pay has not arrived within 7 days, your wages keep running at the same rate until you are paid, for up to 60 days.
We could not confirm any Missouri deadline for final pay when you quit. Without one, the employer pays on its normal schedule.
Nearby states
Sources and checks
Checked on Oct 29, 2026. Source: Missouri Department of Revenue, 2026 Missouri Withholding Tax Formula (printed pages 12 and 13; PDF created November 21, 2025), Step 1.2 standard deductions and the Annual Payroll table "4.70% 9,436.01 and over" (dor.mo.gov/forms/Withholding%20Formula_2026.pdf, saved as data/sources/missouri/Withholding-Formula_2026.pdf, read Oct 29, 2026).
Local taxes: Kansas City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 68, Article VI (library.municode.com/mo/kansas_city/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COORKAMIVOII_CH68TA_ARTVIEAPRTA, saved as data/sources/missouri/kansas-city-code-ch68-art6-earnings-tax.txt, read Oct 29, 2026), Sec. 68-382(a): "A tax for general revenue purposes of 1.0 percent per year is hereby imposed on: (1) All earnings of resident individuals of the city. (2) All earnings of nonresident individuals for services performed or rendered in the city."; Sec. 68-386: employers "shall deduct and withhold from such earnings for each payroll period of such individual one percent of such earnings as earnings tax." City of St. Louis Collector of Revenue, "Employer Withholding and Payroll Expense Tax Information" (stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/collector/earnings-tax/payroll-tax-info.cfm, saved as data/sources/missouri/st-louis-collector-employer-withholding-payroll-expense-tax.html, read Oct 29, 2026): "The Withholding Tax is a 1% tax imposed on the wages of employees living or working in the City of St. Louis." (its separate 0.5 percent Payroll Expense Tax is "paid by the employer" and does not come out of pay). RSMo 92.111 (revisor.mo.gov, saved as data/sources/missouri/rsmo-92.111.html): "After December 31, 2011, no city ... shall impose or levy an earnings tax" except a charter city that already had one and whose voters renew it every five years (RSMo 92.115, saved as data/sources/missouri/rsmo-92.115.html).
Disability and paid leave: Missouri runs no state disability or paid-family-leave program paid by an employee payroll deduction: the 2026 Missouri Withholding Tax Formula (saved as data/sources/missouri/Withholding-Formula_2026.pdf, read Oct 29, 2026) covers state income tax as the only state withholding on wages; no Missouri law or agency page describing such a program was found.
Minimum wage: RSMo 290.502.3 (revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=290.502, saved as data/sources/missouri/rsmo-290.502.html, read Oct 29, 2026): "the minimum wage established by this subsection shall be increased by $1.25 per hour, to $15.00 per hour, effective January 1, 2026." The section sets no later increase. Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, "Minimum Wage" (labor.mo.gov/dls/minimum-wage, saved as data/sources/missouri/labor-mo-gov-minimum-wage.html, read Oct 29, 2026) gives $15.00 for 2026 and tipped employees "at least 50 percent of the minimum wage, $7.50"; RSMo 290.512 (saved as data/sources/missouri/rsmo-290.512.html) sets the 50 percent tip credit limit.
Final paycheck: RSMo 290.110 (revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=290.110, saved as data/sources/missouri/rsmo-290.110.html, read Oct 29, 2026): when an employer "shall discharge, with or without cause, or refuse to further employ any servant or employee thereof, the unpaid wages ... shall be and become due and payable on the day of the discharge"; if the money requested in writing "does not reach the station or office within seven days from the date it is so requested, then as a penalty for such nonpayment the wages of the servant or employee shall continue ... provided, such wages shall not continue more than sixty days."
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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