Most of us work for the money.
Sure, some of us might really like our jobs. But we also like having electricity and food and the financial wherewithal to pursue leisure activities when we’re off the clock.
So, we tend to take the highest paid job we can get and gladly accept raises.
The goal for many (okay, most) of us is a six-figure annual salary. The real question, however, is just how much of any annual pay amount do we really get to take home?
The folks at GOBankingRates have some answers.
The personal finance website pulled data from federal and state tax brackets from the 2025 data compiled by the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based tax policy group. It also factored in the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) payroll taxes that go toward Social Security and Medicare trust funds.
GOBankingRates then used an in-house income tax calculator to find both the effective and marginal tax rate on income of $100,000 in every state for single filers.
Big tax bites: The numbers crunching revealed what you would expect. That six-figure paycheck suddenly drops a digit.
The actual pay reduction can be dramatic, even in the states that don’t have personal income taxes.
Of course, residents of those nine states that don’t tax wage income did come out better in the final calculations.
The numbers show that the after-tax income in all of them — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington (which does collect a 7 percent capital gains tax from higher earners on the profits from their sales of long-term assets), and Wyoming — was $78,736.
North Dakota, with its 2.5 percent top state tax rate, came the closest to its no-tax neighbor to the south. A salary of $100,000 in the Peace Garden State is $78,024 after taxes.
Bigger tax bites: And which state’s workers hand over the most to the tax collectors?
That would be Oregon wage earners. The total tax bill for a single taxpayer in the Beaver State is $29,460. That leaves a single employee with $70,540 to spend.
Hawai’i is second on the least left after taxes list, with a salary of $72,579.
Residents of a dozen more states find their 100 grand paycheck drops into the $73,000 range after taxes. They live in Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New York, and Virginia.
Of course, this is a general framework. Your personal tax situation could mean you can claim some added tax deductions or tax credits that could lower your federal and state tax bills.
You also might find these items of interest:
- Directory of state tax departments
- 2025 tax year federal income tax brackets
- Higher state taxes don’t drive away wealthy residents
- A look at the wide range of how states tax their residents’ income
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