Final Paycheck Calculator
Quitting or laid off? Add up your last check: prorated wages for the final pay period plus accrued PTO payout, after 2026 federal, state, and FICA tax.
Final Paycheck Calculator
Your last check
Enter what you worked but have not been paid for, then the PTO hours you are owed.
2026 estimate, not filing-grade. State tax is a single effective rate per state, so it skips state-specific supplemental rates and items like CA SDI or NY PFL. It assumes year-to-date wages of $0, uses the full standard deduction in place of the W-4 worksheet adjustment, ignores W-4 Steps 2 through 4, and excludes pre-tax deductions. Other final deductions are subtracted after tax.
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Salary Calculator
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What actually goes into your last paycheck
A final paycheck is two things bolted together: the wages you earned in a pay period you did not finish, and any accrued PTO your employer owes you. The calculator above prices both, then runs each through the withholding rule that applies to it.
If you are salaried, the wage half is prorated. Take your full period gross (annual salary divided by the number of pay periods in a year), then multiply by the workdays you worked over the workdays in a full period. On a 260-workday year (52 weeks times 5 days), a weekly period holds 5 workdays, a biweekly period 10, a semimonthly period an average of 10.83, and a monthly period an average of 21.67. The semimonthly and monthly figures are averages: no single calendar period contains 10.83 workdays, but that is the divisor payroll proration policies typically use. The tool caps the factor at one full period, so entering 11 workdays on a semimonthly schedule will not pay you more than a whole check.
If you are hourly there is no proration factor at all. Hours worked but not yet paid times your rate is the whole wage half. Pay frequency still matters on both paths, because it sets the annualization the federal withholding calculation uses.
A few things belong on this check that the calculator does not itemize: unpaid overtime, commissions, and bonuses you had already earned. Add them to your own total. For the proration side alone, on any mid-period start or end, use the Prorated Salary Calculator. For overtime you are still owed, use the Overtime Pay Take-Home Calculator.
Why your PTO payout is taxed differently from your wages
The IRS treats a vacation or PTO payout as supplemental wages (IRS Pub. 15, section 7), so employers usually withhold federal income tax on it at the flat 22% supplemental rate. Your regular wages are not treated that way. Payroll annualizes the check in front of it, multiplying by the number of pay periods in a year, withholds as though that rate ran all year, and divides back down. It has no idea the check is partial. That is why a short final check gets withheld more lightly than a normal one.
Here is the worked example the calculator ships with. A $78,000 salaried employee paid biweekly, who worked 6 of 10 workdays in the final period, is owed 40 PTO hours, files single, and lives in Texas:
- Full biweekly period gross ($78,000 / 26): $3,000.00
- Proration factor (6 / 10): 0.60
- Final regular wages: $1,800.00
- PTO hourly rate ($78,000 / 2080): $37.50
- PTO payout gross (40 x $37.50): $1,500.00
- Total gross final check: $3,300.00
- Annualized for withholding ($1,800 x 26): $46,800.00
- Federal tax on wages: $132.15
- Federal tax on PTO payout (22%): $330.00
- State income tax (TX): $0.00
- Social Security (6.2%): $204.60
- Medicare (1.45%): $47.85
- Total withheld: $714.60
- Net final paycheck: $2,585.40
- Effective withholding rate: 21.7%
The teaching point is in the two federal lines. The wage half was withheld at a 7.3% effective federal rate, against 10.7% on a normal full $3,000 check, because annualizing $1,800 instead of $3,000 lands it in lower brackets. The PTO half was withheld at a flat 22% regardless of size. Blend $132.15 and $330.00 across a $3,300 check and the overall rate, 21.7%, reads higher than a normal paycheck even though the wage half was taxed more lightly. That is the whole answer to "why was my last check taxed so much," and it is the same flat rate the Bonus Tax Take-Home Calculator applies to a bonus.
Two things the 22% does not change. It is withholding, not tax owed: the payout is ordinary income on your return, and if the flat rate overshot your bracket the difference comes back as a refund. And it has nothing to do with FICA. Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45% apply to both halves of the check identically. If the deductions on your last stub still look wrong, the paycheck shrinkage checklist walks through the usual causes.
Severance, unemployment, and what comes after the last check
Severance is supplemental wages too, withheld at the same flat 22% and fully subject to FICA. The difference is size: a lump sum is often large enough that flat withholding overshoots your real bracket by a wide margin, and the overshoot comes back to you at filing time. This page stays on the last regular check plus PTO.
Unemployment benefits are taxable federal income, but withholding on them is opt-in rather than automatic. If you skip it, the tax arrives at filing time. The unemployment benefits withholding guide covers how to elect withholding on Form W-4V.
On the legal side, both the PTO payout question and the payment deadline turn on state law and on the exact wording of your employer's policy. This calculator stays out of that business and treats accrued PTO hours as a plain input. Check your own rules with your state labor department or wage-and-hour division rather than relying on a chart.
Where this estimate stops and Salary Calculator takes over
This web version makes five simplifications, in one place so you can judge them: a flat effective state rate per state, no W-4 Steps 2 through 4, no pre-tax deductions, no year-to-date wages (so the $184,500 Social Security wage base is assumed not yet reached), and single or married filing jointly only. For the typical final check those assumptions are close to exact. At the extremes, a late-year separation for a high earner or a very large payout, they drift.
For exact per-state withholding, state special taxes such as CA SDI and NY PFL, year-to-date FICA-taxable earnings so the Social Security wage base truncates correctly, full W-4 support, and saved profiles for weighing offers side by side, download the Stub44 Salary Calculator app. To see what a normal full check looks like next to this prorated one, run the Paycheck by Pay Frequency Calculator, and when you are sizing up the next role, the Net to Gross Salary Calculator works backward from the take-home you want.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about final paycheck calculator
What is included in my final paycheck when I quit or get laid off?
Every hour or day you worked but have not been paid for, plus any accrued PTO your employer owes you, plus any unpaid overtime, commissions, or bonuses already earned. Deductions your employer normally takes still come out, and some employers add a last one-off charge such as unreturned equipment. Severance, if you are offered it, is a separate payment with its own tax treatment.
How is a PTO payout taxed?
The IRS treats a vacation or PTO payout as supplemental wages, so most employers withhold federal income tax at the flat 22% supplemental rate rather than running it through your normal W-4 tables (IRS Pub. 15). Social Security and Medicare come out at the usual 6.2% and 1.45%, and state income tax still applies. The 22% is withholding, not your final tax rate: the payout is ordinary income on your return, and if 22% overshoots your actual bracket, the difference comes back as a refund.
Does my state require my employer to pay out unused PTO?
Federal law does not require it. The FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, so PTO payout is a matter of state law and your employer's written policy. A handful of states treat accrued vacation as earned wages that cannot be forfeited, which is why California (Labor Code section 227.3: "whenever the employment relationship ends, for any reason whatsoever ... the employer must pay the employee at his or her final rate of pay for all of his or her earned and accrued and unused vacation days") and Massachusetts (M.G.L. c.149 s.148, which defines "wages" to include "any holiday or vacation payments due an employee under an oral or written agreement") are the clearest examples. Several other states reach a similar result through statute or case law, sometimes with conditions such as a minimum length of service or a minimum employer size, and in most states the employer's written policy controls. Because the rules turn on the exact wording of your policy as much as the statute, confirm your own situation with your state labor department or wage-and-hour division before you count on a payout. This calculator does not decide the question for you: enter the PTO hours you believe you are owed and it will value them.
Why does my final paycheck look like it was taxed at a higher rate?
Because it is two payments with two different withholding rules stapled together. The wage portion is annualized: payroll multiplies the check in front of it by the number of pay periods in a year and withholds as though that rate ran all year, so a partial check lands in lower brackets and is withheld more lightly than usual. The PTO portion is withheld at the flat 22% supplemental rate no matter how small it is. Blend them and the check's overall rate can look higher than a normal paycheck even though half of it was taxed less.
When do I have to receive my final paycheck?
The Department of Labor is explicit that "employers are not required by federal law to give former employees their final paycheck immediately." Timing is set by state law and generally depends on whether you quit or were let go, with a firing usually triggering the faster deadline. Massachusetts is the clearest example we can cite directly: M.G.L. c.149 s.148 requires that "any employee discharged from such employment shall be paid in full on the day of his discharge." California has a comparable immediate-payment rule for involuntary terminations (see the DLSE paydays FAQ, Labor Code sections 201 and 202). Most states allow payment on the next regular payday. Check your own state's rule with its labor department, and contact them if you have not been paid by the next scheduled payday.
How do you calculate the hourly value of PTO for a salaried employee?
Divide your annual salary by 2080, which is 40 hours a week times 52 weeks. A $78,000 salary works out to $37.50 an hour, so 40 accrued PTO hours are a $1,500 gross payout. The calculator does this for you and shows the per-hour rate it used, so you can check it against the rate on your pay stub.
Is severance taxed the same way as my final paycheck?
Severance is also supplemental wages, so it is usually withheld at the same flat 22% as a PTO payout and is fully subject to FICA. The difference is scale: a severance lump sum is often large enough that flat withholding badly overshoots your real bracket, which is where the refund story lives. This tool covers the last regular check plus PTO.