Most of the maths people do as adults never happens in a classroom. It happens when a job offer arrives, when a raise comes through, when you are deciding whether you can afford a move, or when you just want to know why your paycheck is smaller than your salary suggests.
None of that maths is hard. What makes it hard is everything around it: tax brackets, deductions, rates that change halfway through a year, and rules that differ from one state to the next. Calculator Dad exists to handle that part, so you can get on with the decision.
Numbers make decisions easier
A vague question is stressful. A number is something you can work with.
Say you earn $65,000 in Texas and you are offered $70,000 for the same job in California. It sounds like $5,000 more. Run both through our paycheck calculators as a single filer and you take home about $54,408 a year in Texas and about $55,700 in California. California's income tax takes about $2,375, so the real difference is roughly $1,293 a year, or about $108 a month, before you have even looked at rent.
That does not tell you whether to move. It tells you what you are actually deciding between, which is the part that matters. That is what a good calculator is for: it does not make the choice, it makes the choice clear.
How our calculators work
Every calculator here is a piece of maths written down once, carefully, so you do not have to do it yourself every time.
- The rules come from the people who set them. Tax rates and deductions are read from each state's own revenue department and the IRS, not copied from another website. Every source is listed.
- The working is shown. Under every answer you can see each step: what was deducted, at what rate, and why. If a number looks wrong to you, you can check it line by line.
- Every figure is dated. Each page says when it was last checked, and figures are re-checked on a schedule, weekly during the months when states usually change their tax laws.
- Your numbers stay yours. The calculations run in your browser. What you type is not sent to us or stored anywhere.
The full method is on how we calculate.
Who it is for
Everyday people who need a number they can trust: someone comparing two job offers, a parent planning a monthly budget, a student checking their working, someone starting a first job and wondering where the money went. You should not need a finance degree or a subscription to get a straight answer.
That is also why the Learn section exists. Knowing how a calculator gets its answer, and where the rules came from, makes you better at spotting when an answer is wrong, from us or from anyone else.
What I promise
- Free, with no sign-up. Every calculator, for everyone.
- Sourced and dated. If a page gives you a figure, it tells you where the figure came from and when it was checked.
- Plain English. No jargon where a normal word will do, and no padding.
- Mistakes fixed in public. When something is wrong, it gets corrected and the change is noted. You can report one here.
- Honest about limits. These are estimates for planning, not tax advice. When something matters, the pages say so and tell you who to check with.
Why I do this
I have loved numbers since I was a child. I studied economics for three years, and I work as a day trader, where a small error in a number you trust can cost real money. That habit of checking the maths twice is what I have tried to build into every page here.
Building calculators is also just fun. Taking a messy rule and turning it into something that gives anyone the right answer in a second is a good way to spend an evening. More about me.
What comes next
Paycheck calculators for all 50 states and DC are live. Tax, loan and mortgage, business and everyday maths calculators are next, each built to the same standard before it goes up. If there is a calculation you keep doing by hand, tell me on X and it might be the next one.