First Paycheck Estimator
Short answer
A teenager’s paycheck is smaller than hours times rate mainly because of FICA: 6.2 percent for Social Security and 1.45 percent for Medicare, 7.65 percent in total, taken out of essentially every ordinary W-2 paycheck regardless of age or how little they earn. Federal income tax withholding comes out on top of that and depends on the W-4. Put the numbers in below to see the split.
$0.00
Federal only. State and local tax are not included, so the real check is usually a little lower. Nothing here is stored or sent anywhere.
The conversation this tool is really for
Almost every teenager works out what they are going to earn before their first shift, and almost every one of them works it out as hours times rate. Then the check arrives about eight percent lighter, plus whatever income tax was withheld, and the reaction is some version of being cheated.
Showing them the split before the first check lands turns that from a grievance into a fact about how jobs work. It is a fifteen minute conversation that saves a much worse one.
What comes out, in order
Social Security and Medicare, together called FICA. 6.2 percent and 1.45 percent, 7.65 percent in total. On an ordinary job with an unrelated employer it comes out whatever their age and however little they earn. This is the piece nobody expects.
The exceptions are narrow enough that they will not apply to most first jobs, but they are real. The IRS’s page on family employees states that “payments for the services of a child under the age 18 are not subject to social security and Medicare taxes” where the parent’s business is a sole proprietorship or a partnership in which each partner is a parent, and that the exception does not apply where the business is a corporation. A student employed by the school they attend can also sit outside FICA. If your teenager works in the family business, check before assuming the deduction is missing in error.
The number is easy to sanity-check against a figure the IRS does publish plainly: self-employed people pay 15.3 percent, because they owe both halves. An employee pays one half, and the employer pays the other half separately.
Federal income tax withholding. This one depends entirely on the W-4, which is why the estimator asks. It is also the piece that can come back as a refund.
State and sometimes local tax. Not estimated here, because it ranges from nothing at all to a meaningful bite depending on where you live.
What it looks like
Ethan is sixteen, earns fourteen dollars an hour, and works twelve hours a week, paid every two weeks. He has told everyone he will be bringing home three hundred and thirty six dollars.
Gross is indeed three hundred and thirty six. FICA takes about twenty six of it. With a standard W-4 and no exempt claim, a small amount of federal income tax comes out too. The check is somewhere near three hundred, and if his state withholds, lower again.
Twenty six dollars is not a catastrophe. Finding out about it while standing in a parking lot holding the check is worse than finding out at the kitchen table two weeks earlier.
The exempt question, briefly
Switching the last field to “yes” is the W-4 exempt claim, and it stops federal income tax withholding. Notice it does not move the FICA bar at all.
Exempt is only correct when they genuinely expect to owe no federal income tax for the year, which for a dependent turns on the standard deduction. It is worth getting right rather than guessing, and it has its own page: how to fill out a W-4 for a teenager.
Whether any of this means filing a return
Different question, and a common source of confusion, because having tax withheld and being required to file are not the same thing. Sometimes a teenager is not required to file and should anyway, because filing is how withheld federal tax comes back.
That is covered in full on does my teenager have to file taxes, with the current thresholds and the tax year they apply to.
One thing worth doing with the first check
If any of it is going to be saved, the moment the first check arrives is the easiest it will ever be to set that up, because nothing has been spent yet and no habit exists to break.
The compound interest visualiser is a reasonable thing to put in front of them at that exact moment. Twenty dollars a week is an abstraction. The number at age sixty five is not.
This is general information, not tax advice, and payroll and tax rules change. Verify anything you plan to act on against the IRS pages linked above or ask a tax professional.
Common questions
Is there an age at which Social Security and Medicare stop coming out?
Not on an ordinary job with an outside employer. A sixteen year old working twelve hours a week has it withheld exactly like a forty year old does, and that surprises almost every first-time worker. The exceptions are narrow: the IRS treats payments to a child under 18 for work in a parent’s own unincorporated business as outside Social Security and Medicare tax, and a student employed by the school they attend can also fall outside it. Neither covers a normal outside job.
Can they get the Social Security and Medicare money back by filing?
No, and this is the distinction worth being clear about. Federal income tax that was withheld can come back as a refund if they end up owing none. FICA is a different thing and does not refund. It is why the estimate below separates the two.
Why is state tax not included?
Because it varies far too much to estimate honestly. Some states have no income tax at all, others withhold from the first dollar, and a few have local taxes on top. The estimate here is deliberately federal-only and the real check will usually be a little lower.
How accurate is this?
The FICA figure is exact. The federal income tax figure is a rough band, not a tax-table calculation, because actual withholding depends on how the W-4 was filled in. Treat the take-home number as a close estimate, not a prediction to the cent.