FICA: Social Security and Medicare on your paycheck

FICA is the pair of payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. In 2026, your employer withholds 6.2% of your pay for Social Security, on wages up to $184,500, and 1.45% for Medicare on all your wages, so most paychecks lose 7.65% to FICA before income tax is even considered.

The name comes from the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, the law that sets these taxes. On a pay stub you may see them as "FICA", as "OASDI" and "Medicare", or as "Social Security" and "Medicare". They're the same thing.

How FICA differs from income tax

Income tax withholding depends on your W-4, your filing status and a set of brackets. FICA doesn't: it's a flat percentage of your wages. Filing status, dependents and the W-4 have no effect on it. That makes FICA easy to check on a pay stub: multiply your FICA wages for the period by the rate and the result should match to within a cent.

FICA also isn't refunded at tax time the way extra income tax withholding is. What's withheld is what you owe, with one exception for people with more than one job, covered below.

Social Security: 6.2% up to the wage base

Social Security is withheld at 6.2% of each paycheck until your wages for the calendar year reach the Social Security wage base, $184,500 for 2026. The wage base is adjusted each year. Above it, nothing more is withheld for the rest of the year, which caps the yearly amount at $11,439.

Most people never reach the wage base. For those who do, take-home pay rises noticeably for the last paychecks of the year:

On a $250,000 salary paid every two weeks, each paycheck is $9,615.38, with $596.15 of Social Security. After 19 paychecks, wages for the year reach $182,692.22, so paycheck 20 is taxed on only the last $1,807.78 below the wage base, and paychecks after that have no Social Security at all. The yearly total stops at $11,439.00.

The wage base applies per employer. If you change jobs during the year, your new employer starts counting from zero, even though your combined wages may pass the base.

Medicare: 1.45%, with no cap

Medicare is withheld at 1.45% of all wages, however high. There's no wage base.

On top of that, employers must withhold Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on the part of your wages above $200,000 in a calendar year. The employer starts withholding it with the paycheck that takes your wages past that amount, whatever your filing status. The tax you actually owe is worked out on your return using thresholds that do depend on filing status, so some people get part of it back and others owe a little more.

The employer pays a matching share

Your employer pays its own Social Security and Medicare on your wages, matching the 6.2% and 1.45% you pay. That share isn't taken from your paycheck, so it doesn't appear in your take-home pay, but it's part of what employing you costs. There's no employer match for Additional Medicare Tax.

Which deductions lower FICA wages

FICA is figured on wages after certain pre-tax deductions, but not the same ones that lower income tax:

• Lower FICA wages: health, dental and vision premiums paid through a cafeteria plan (Section 125), HSA contributions made through payroll, health flexible spending accounts, and dependent care assistance up to its limit.
• Don't lower FICA wages: traditional 401(k) and 403(b) contributions. They reduce wages for federal income tax, but Social Security and Medicare still apply to them.

So a traditional 401(k) lowers your income tax but not your FICA, while health insurance through a cafeteria plan lowers both. You can see this in the calculator: add a 401(k) contribution and the federal income tax line drops, but the Social Security and Medicare lines stay the same.

A worked example

On a typical salary, FICA is the second-largest amount after federal income tax. Here it is on one paycheck, in a state with no income tax:

The paycheck calculator shows the same breakdown for any salary or hourly rate. For hourly workers, the conversion pages such as what 25 dollars an hour is per year show the yearly figure that FICA is based on.

Two jobs and excess Social Security

Each employer withholds Social Security up to the wage base on the wages it pays, without knowing about your other job. If your combined wages from two or more employers pass the base, too much Social Security will have been withheld across the year.

You don't get that back through payroll. Instead, you claim the excess as a credit on your federal income tax return. If a single employer withheld too much by mistake, the employer has to correct it. Medicare has no wage base, so there's no excess to claim for regular Medicare.

When an employer withholds too much

Mistakes happen, for example when a payroll system keeps withholding Social Security after your wages pass the base, or treats a deduction the wrong way. If a single employer withheld more Social Security than it should have, you can't claim the excess on your tax return; the employer is expected to adjust it and repay you. Check your last pay stub of the year, or your Form W-2: the Social Security tax withheld by one employer should never be more than $11,439.

Hourly, part-time and irregular pay

Because FICA is a flat percentage, it scales exactly with what you earn. If you work fewer hours one week, FICA falls by the same proportion as your gross pay, and if you pick up extra shifts, it rises the same way. That's different from federal income tax, where a paycheck that's larger than usual can be withheld at a higher rate because the payroll system treats it as if you earned that much all year.

There's no minimum either: even a small paycheck from a part-time job has Social Security and Medicare withheld. And wages are generally subject to FICA whatever your age, even if you already receive Social Security benefits.

Overtime, bonuses and tips

FICA applies to almost all wages: overtime, bonuses, commissions, vacation pay and reported tips are all subject to Social Security and Medicare in the same way as regular pay. A large bonus can push you over the Social Security wage base earlier in the year, after which later paychecks have no Social Security withheld. The overtime calculator shows the extra gross pay from overtime, and FICA applies to all of it.

Self-employed people

If you work for yourself, there's no employer to pay the matching share, so you pay both halves through self-employment tax when you file, instead of having FICA withheld from a paycheck. This calculator and guide cover employees paid through payroll.

Checking FICA on your pay stub

To check the lines on your stub:

1. Start with gross pay for the period and subtract any cafeteria plan, HSA or FSA deductions (but not your 401(k)).
2. Multiply by 6.2% for Social Security and by 1.45% for Medicare.
3. If your wages for the year have passed $184,500, Social Security should be lower or zero; if they've passed $200,000, Medicare should include the extra 0.9%.

If the figures are off by more than a cent or two, ask your payroll department how they treat your deductions. For questions about your tax return, a tax professional can help.