Part-Time Paycheck Calculator
See what a part-time schedule really pays after 2026 federal, state, and FICA taxes, with a side-by-side of 20, 25, 30, and 35 hours a week.
Part-Time Paycheck Calculator
Hourly Rate
Part-Time Schedule
Hours are capped at 40. Drop the weeks below 52 for a school-year or seasonal schedule.
Past 40 hours in a workweek the FLSA generally requires time and a half for non-exempt workers. This calculator pays every hour at your straight-time rate, so use the overtime calculator for time-and-a-half math.
Pay Frequency
Filing Status
State Rate & Deductions
Use your state's effective rate, not the top marginal rate. Enter 0 for Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Pre-tax money (401(k), HSA, Section 125 premiums) lowers income tax but not FICA.
Weekly and biweekly figures are working-week amounts. Monthly and per-paycheck figures are yearly averages across all 12 months.
Pre-tax deductions and taxes exceed your gross pay, so take-home is shown as $0.00.
Take-Home Per Hour Worked
Tax & FICA Breakdown
| Item | Annual | Per paycheck | % of gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal income tax | $0.00 | $0.00 | 0.0% |
| State income tax | $0.00 | $0.00 | 0.0% |
| Social Security (6.2%) | $0.00 | $0.00 | 0.0% |
| Medicare (1.45%) | $0.00 | $0.00 | 0.0% |
| Additional Medicare (0.9%) | $0.00 | $0.00 | 0.0% |
| Pre-tax deductions | $0.00 | $0.00 | 0.0% |
| Total taxes withheld | $0.00 | $0.00 | 0.0% |
Federal figures use 2026 brackets and standard deductions. State tax is the single effective rate you entered. This is an annualized liability estimate, not an exact copy of your employer's W-4 withholding.
20 vs 25 vs 30 vs 35 Hours a Week
Every column is a full recalculation at your rate, weeks, filing status, state rate, and pre-tax amount. Columns are rounded independently, so they will not scale proportionally off the 20-hour column.
Track Part-Time Hours Across Jobs
Two part-time jobs means two withholding profiles and one tax bill. ClockWage44 logs shifts per job and runs a full paycheck engine that resolves federal tax, state tax, FICA, overtime rules, and deductions into a take-home figure to the cent, all on-device.
How many hours a week counts as part-time?
Three rules compete, and none of them agree. The Fair Labor Standards Act never defines part-time or full-time, so federal wage law leaves the label entirely to your employer.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics draws its line at 35 hours: work fewer than that in a usual week and the household survey counts you as part-time.
The Affordable Care Act draws a different line. An employee averaging 30 hours a week, or 130 hours a month, is full-time for the employer health-coverage mandate at a business with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees.
That is why the comparison columns are set at 20, 25, 30, and 35 hours. They bracket the whole contested range, and 30 is the hour count where benefits eligibility often flips even though your paycheck still looks part-time.
Why part-time take-home per hour falls as you add hours
The standard deduction shields a flat dollar amount, not a share of your pay. For 2026 it is $16,100 for a single filer, $32,200 for married filing jointly, and $24,150 for head of household. Wages below that line carry no federal income tax at all.
Add hours and you push income past the shield, where it meets the 10% bracket, then the 12% bracket. The marginal rate stays low, but the average rate climbs, so each extra hour is worth a little less after tax than the one before it.
At $20 an hour for 52 weeks, single, with a 4% state rate, the effective tax rate runs 13.9% at 20 hours a week and 17.7% at 35 hours. Take-home per hour worked slides from $17.22 to $16.47 across the same span.
FICA is the piece that never moves. Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45% apply from the first dollar with no deduction in front of them, which is why a very low-hour schedule can owe $0 in federal income tax while 7.65% still comes out of every check.
What actually comes out of a part-time paycheck
Social Security takes 6.2% of wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500. A part-time schedule will not approach that cap, but the cap is why the line item stops growing for high earners.
Medicare takes 1.45% with no cap, plus an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for single and head of household filers or $250,000 for married filing jointly. That surtax row stays hidden here because part-time wages never reach it.
Federal income tax applies only to what is left after the standard deduction, then runs through the progressive brackets. State income tax is modeled as one effective rate you enter, so states with progressive brackets, flat taxes, and local add-ons all collapse into that single number. It is an approximation by design.
Pre-tax money such as a 401(k) contribution, an HSA, or Section 125 health premiums lowers your federal and state taxable wages but not your FICA wages, so those payroll taxes come out of the full gross either way. Your paystub can also differ from this estimate because employers withhold with the Pub. 15-T percentage method against your W-4, while this tool estimates annual liability. For the full-schedule version of the same math, see the take-home pay calculator, or convert a part-time rate into an annual figure with the hourly to salary calculator.
Pricing a schedule change and the two-job trap
When a manager offers to move you from 30 hours to 25, the gross difference and the net difference are not the same number. Read the two columns side by side: gross falls by a flat amount, but federal tax falls faster in percentage terms because you drop back toward the standard deduction. The take-home-per-hour row shows whether the hours you keep are worth more or less after tax.
Working the question in reverse is often more useful. If you have a take-home target rather than a schedule, the hours needed for target pay calculator solves for the hours instead.
Then there is the two-job problem. Neither payroll department knows about the other, so each one withholds as though its job were your only income, and the standard deduction plus the lowest brackets get applied twice over. At filing time both W-2s land on one return. Two $20,000 part-time jobs are taxed as a single $40,000 income, which is why under-withholding is the normal outcome and a surprise bill shows up in April. Step 2 of Form W-4, or extra withholding on the higher-paying job, closes the gap. Tracking hours per job and seeing net pay per job is exactly what ClockWage44 does on your phone.
Be clear about what this tool does not do. It pays every hour at straight time, so overtime is out of scope. It uses one state effective rate with no local or city tax. And it applies no credits, so nothing here accounts for the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Child Tax Credit. Estimates only, not tax or legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about part-time paycheck calculator
How many hours a week is part-time?
There is no single legal definition. The Fair Labor Standards Act does not define part-time or full-time at all, so each employer sets its own threshold. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts anyone usually working fewer than 35 hours a week as part-time, and the Affordable Care Act treats 30 or more hours a week (or 130 hours a month) as full-time for the employer health-coverage mandate. Most US employers land somewhere between 20 and 29 hours.
How much is 20 hours a week after taxes?
At $20 an hour, 20 hours a week for 52 weeks is $20,800 gross. For a single filer in 2026, the $16,100 standard deduction leaves $4,700 taxable, so federal income tax is about $470. FICA takes $1,289.60 for Social Security and $301.60 for Medicare. With a 4% state effective rate ($832), take-home is roughly $17,907 a year, about $1,492 a month, or $17.22 per hour worked. Change the rate and hours above to see your own figure.
Do part-time workers pay less tax than full-time workers?
The rates are the same. The dollars and the effective rate are lower. Payroll tax rules are identical: Social Security and Medicare come out of the first dollar at 7.65% combined. Federal income tax is progressive and starts only after the standard deduction, so a part-timer's effective rate is much lower. In the example above, the total effective rate rises from 13.9% at 20 hours a week to 17.7% at 35 hours a week on the same $20 hourly rate.
Why is my take-home per hour lower when I work more hours?
Because the standard deduction is a fixed dollar shield, not a percentage. The first $16,100 of a single filer's 2026 wages is federally untaxed; every dollar beyond that is taxed at 10%, then 12%, and so on. The average value of an hour therefore drops as hours rise, from $17.22 an hour at 20 hours a week to $16.47 at 35 hours in the example. You still take home more money in total. Each additional hour is just worth slightly less than the one before it.
Does a part-time job get taxed more if I have two of them?
Each employer withholds as if that job were your only income, applying the standard deduction and the lowest brackets twice. Two $20,000 part-time jobs are taxed as one $40,000 income at filing time, so under-withholding is common and you can owe in April. Fix it with Step 2 of Form W-4 (the multiple-jobs section) or by adding extra withholding on the higher-paying job. Run this calculator on your combined hours, and check the W-4 withholding calculator to size the adjustment.
Do part-time employees get overtime?
Yes, if they are non-exempt and actually work more than 40 hours in a workweek. The FLSA test is hours worked in the workweek, not job title or part-time status, so being scheduled at 25 hours does not waive overtime if you get called in and cross 40. This calculator pays every hour at straight time, so use the overtime calculator for time-and-a-half math.
Is 30 hours a week considered full-time?
For the ACA employer mandate, yes: 30 hours a week or 130 hours a month makes you a full-time employee for health-coverage purposes at an employer with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees. For Bureau of Labor Statistics purposes you would still be counted part-time (under 35 hours), and your employer's own benefits policy may use a third number entirely. That mismatch is exactly why the comparison table carries a 30-hour column.
How do I find my state income tax rate for this calculator?
Use your effective rate, which is total state income tax divided by total income, not the top marginal rate. Nine states levy no wage income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming), so enter 0. Elsewhere, part-time incomes usually land at a low effective rate, often 0 to 4 percent, because most states have their own standard deduction or personal exemption. Your last state return divided by your income is the most accurate number.