How Much Is $20, $25 or $30 an Hour After Taxes in California? (2026 Table)

If you know your hourly wage, you can figure out what actually lands in your bank account. The short answer: at $20 an hour, full time, a single worker in California (with 1 allowance on the state DE 4 form) takes home about $661 a week, $1,321 every two weeks, $2,863 a month, or $34,353 a year in 2026. The table below does the same math for common wages from the state minimum up to $70 an hour.

Take-home pay by hourly wage in California (2026)

Every row assumes the same simple situation: 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, no overtime, single, and no retirement or health insurance deductions. It also assumes the federal tax form you filled out when you were hired (the W-4, 2020 version or later) has nothing extra filled in, and that you claimed 1 “allowance” on California's version of that form (the DE 4). An allowance lowers how much state tax is taken out of each check; if you never turned in a DE 4, your employer generally uses 0 allowances, which takes out about $6.47 more every two weeks.

The “before taxes” column is your yearly gross pay, not your net pay. Every other column is your take-home: what's left after federal income tax, California income tax, Social Security, Medicare and California SDI (State Disability Insurance, which pays part of your wages if you can't work because of an illness or injury that isn't work-related, pregnancy or childbirth, or while you take paid family leave).

Find your hourly wage in the left column. On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column →

Your wage isn't listed? Look at the rows just above and below it: your take-home falls in between. For an exact number, enter your wage in the calculator.

“Every 2 weeks” is often called biweekly on pay stubs. “Monthly” is what you'd take home if you were paid once a month — about your yearly take-home divided by 12, handy to compare with rent or bills. If you're paid every two weeks instead, most months you'll get two checks, and usually two months a year you'll get three.

How to turn an hourly wage into a monthly or yearly amount

A full-time year is 2,080 hours (40 hours × 52 weeks). So:

• Yearly, before taxes: hourly wage × 2,080. For $22 an hour, that's $45,760.
• Monthly, before taxes: the yearly amount ÷ 12. For $22 an hour, that's $3,813.33.
• Monthly, after taxes: about $3,121.58 at $22 an hour, from the table above.

Why a higher wage keeps a smaller share

Look at the last column of the table: at the state minimum you keep about 84% of your pay, and at $70 an hour you keep about 68%. That's because two of the five deductions grow faster than your pay, and three don't.

• Flat deductions: Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%) and California SDI (1.3%) take the same percentage from every dollar — together, 8.95% of your pay at these wages.
• Income taxes go up in steps: federal and California income tax are charged in brackets. For a single person in 2026, the federal rate is 10% on the first slice of taxable income (your yearly pay minus the standard deduction, $16,100 for a single person in 2026), 12% on the next slice, and 22% once taxable income passes $50,400. California works the same way with its own brackets.

Does a raise ever mean less take-home pay? Almost never, at least not because of taxes. Only the extra dollars that land in a higher bracket are taxed at the higher rate — every dollar you already earned keeps its old rate. That's why every row in the table takes home more than the row above it.

Example: going from $20 to $22 an hour adds $4,160 a year before taxes, but about $3,105 after taxes, or about $60 more a week ($720.36 vs. $660.64). When you compare a new job, also compare health insurance costs, retirement matching and how many hours you'll really get. And separately from taxes, a raise can reduce public benefits that have income limits, so check with any program you receive help from.

How to use this table with your own pay stub

1. Find your row. Use the row for your regular hourly rate, before any overtime or shift differentials.
2. Pick the column that matches your pay schedule. If you're paid weekly or every two weeks, use that column, not “Monthly.” If you're paid twice a month (for example on the 15th and the last day), divide the “Monthly take-home” number by 2.
3. Compare it with the “net pay” line on your stub. If yours is lower, look for fewer than 40 hours that week, pre-tax deductions (a 401(k) or health insurance), extra withholding on your W-4, or 0 allowances on your DE 4. If yours is higher, overtime or extra hours are the usual reason.
4. Check it line by line. Enter the numbers from your stub in the paycheck checker to see which deduction is different.

What can make your number different

• Married, or “head of household” (generally an unmarried person who pays more than half the cost of a home for a child or other qualifying relative): withholding is usually lower, so take-home is usually higher. The calculator lets you pick your filing status.
• Overtime: overtime hours are paid at 1.5× or 2× your rate, which raises your gross pay. See the rules in our California overtime guide.
• Retirement and health insurance: a traditional 401(k) and, in many cases, health insurance premiums come out before some taxes are figured, which lowers your take-home but also lowers your tax.
• Fewer hours: the table assumes 40 hours every week. Part-time or seasonal work changes every number.
• Your tax return: these numbers are what gets withheld from each paycheck. When you file your taxes, you may get a refund or owe money, depending on your full year (see what each paycheck deduction pays for).

For a line-by-line look at each of the five deductions, see how much is taken out of my paycheck in California.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

The numbers in this article come from these official and primary sources:

• IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 — 2026 federal tax brackets and the $16,100 standard deduction for single filers
• IRS Publication 15-T (2026) — federal income tax withholding methods
• IRS Topic 751 — Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) rates
• California EDD — Rates and Withholding — 2026 SDI rate (1.3%) and the Method B tables used for California withholding
• California DIR — Minimum Wage 2026 — the $16.90 state minimum wage
• IRS — Retirement plan contributions and withholding — how a traditional 401(k) affects withholding
• IRS Publication 15-B (2026) — health insurance paid pre-tax through a cafeteria plan
• IRS Publication 501 — who qualifies as head of household
• California EDD — Disability Insurance — what SDI's disability and paid family leave benefits cover
• California EDD — 2026 Method B — the low-income exemption and $168.30 allowance credit behind the California figures
• California EDD — Form DE 4 — without a DE 4, employers must withhold as Single with zero allowances
• California DIR — Overtime FAQ — overtime at 1.5× and 2× the regular rate
• California DIR — Minimum Wage FAQ — some cities and counties have a higher minimum wage