Does Washington State have an income tax?

No. Washington has no personal state income tax. However, employees do pay premiums for the state's Paid Family & Medical Leave (PFML) program and, for most workers, the WA Cares long-term care (LTI) program.

What is the Washington PFML premium?

For 2025 the total PFML premium is 0.92% of wages up to the Social Security wage base. Employees pay roughly 71.43% of that premium, so the employee share is about 0.657% of covered wages.

What is the WA Cares (LTI) premium?

WA Cares is Washington's long-term care program, funded by a 0.58% employee payroll premium on all wages with no cap. Workers who bought qualifying private long-term care insurance before the cutoff could apply for an exemption.

Can I opt out of WA Cares?

Most workers cannot opt out. Exemptions were granted to people who held approved private long-term care coverage or who meet narrow criteria (e.g., living out of state). If you have an approved exemption, uncheck the WA Cares option in this tool.

Is my data sent anywhere?

No. All calculations run locally in your browser using 2025 federal and Washington program rates. Nothing is uploaded.

Washington State Payroll Calculator

Washington State has no personal income tax, but its paycheck math is not quite as simple as Florida’s. Washington funds two employee-paid programs through payroll: Paid Family & Medical Leave (PFML) and the WA Cares long-term care (LTI) program. This calculator estimates your true Washington take-home pay including both premiums.

How it works

The calculator applies these deductions in order:

Federal income tax — standard deduction ($15,000 single / $30,000 married for 2025) then the seven progressive federal brackets.
FICA — Social Security at 6.2% up to the $176,100 wage base, plus Medicare at 1.45% on all wages.
PFML — total 2025 premium of 0.92% of wages up to the Social Security cap. The employee pays about 71.43% of that, so the employee share is roughly 0.00657 of covered wages.
WA Cares (LTI) — 0.58% of all wages with no cap, paid entirely by the employee (unless exempt).

Net pay is gross pay minus all of the above.

Example

A single filer earning $100,000: PFML employee share is about $575 (0.657% of the capped wage), and WA Cares is $580 (0.58% of $100,000). These are modest relative to federal tax but real — together they reduce take-home by over $1,100 a year compared with a no-program state.

Notes

Premium rates are set annually by Washington’s Employment Security Department and the WA Cares Fund. This tool uses 2025 rates. It does not model employer-paid shares, per-paycheck rounding, or W-4 allowances. Use it for planning, not as official payroll output.