FICA Tax Explained 2026: Social Security & Medicare on Your Stub

Two Lines Nobody Explains

Every stub has them: Social Security and Medicare, or sometimes one line marked FICA or OASDI. Together they take 7.65% of your gross pay before a single bracket applies, and unlike income tax there is almost nothing you can do to shrink them.

Here is exactly how the 2026 numbers work, and why an overtime week feels like it gives more of itself away than it really does.

The Two Halves

Social Security — 6.2%. Charged on wages up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500. Once your year-to-date wages pass it, withholding for this piece stops for the rest of the calendar year and your net pay jumps.

Medicare — 1.45%. No cap at all. Every dollar of wages pays it, from your first hour to your last. Above $200,000 for a single filer, an extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax kicks in on the excess — employees only, with no employer match on that piece.

Your employer pays a matching 6.2% and 1.45% on top of your wages. It never shows on your stub, but it is why an hour of your time costs a business more than the wage itself.

A Worked Week

Say you earn $26 an hour, work 40 regular and 8 overtime hours, and get paid weekly.

• Regular pay: 40 x $26 = $1,040.
• Overtime pay: 8 x $39 = $312.
• Gross: $1,352.
• Social Security: $83.82. Medicare: $19.60. FICA total: $103.42.

The rate on the overtime portion is identical to the rate on the regular portion. There is no premium FICA rate for premium pay.

Why Your 401(k) Does Not Help Here

This is where good financial habits meet a hard rule. Traditional 401(k) and 403(b) contributions come out before federal income tax — but not before Social Security and Medicare wages. Contribute 6% and your income tax drops immediately while FICA stays exactly where it was.

A small set of deductions genuinely are FICA-exempt: most Section 125 health, dental and vision premiums, HSA contributions made through a cafeteria plan, and dependent care FSA money. If your employer offers a cafeteria plan, that health premium is doing double duty.

Hitting the Wage Base

Cross $184,500 in wages and your paycheck grows by 6.2% overnight for the rest of the year. High earners with heavy fourth-quarter overtime often notice this before they understand it. It resets every January.

Self-Employed and Gig Work

Working for yourself means paying both halves: 15.3% self-employment tax on net earnings, with an above-the-line deduction for the employer-equivalent portion when you file. Contractors moving from a W-2 job routinely underestimate this — the same $70,000 carries roughly $5,000 more in payroll tax than it did as an employee.

The FICA calculator has a self-employed setting that doubles the rate for you.

Putting It Together

FICA is the flat, unavoidable layer. Federal income tax is the layer you can influence with deductions — the federal tax calculator handles that. To see all three cuts on one screen, including your state rate, use the take home pay calculator, and if you are pricing extra shifts first, the gross pay calculator gets you the gross figure to feed in.

For questions about your own withholding, your latest pay stub and IRS guidance are the authoritative sources. This guide is education, not tax advice.