A $5,000 raise never adds $5,000 to your paycheck. We ran a $5,000 raise through the same 2026 federal and state tax engine that powers our paycheck calculator, at five starting salaries, for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., to see how much you actually keep.
Key findings
At $75,000, even the best states let you keep only about 70%. On that salary, a $5,000 raise adds $3,518 a year in the 9 states with no wage tax, after federal income tax ($1,100) and Social Security and Medicare ($382).
California keeps the least at $75,000: $3,095 a year, or $119.04 per biweekly paycheck, because $423 more goes to state income tax.
Where you start matters. At $50,000, the raise stays in the 12% federal bracket and no-tax states keep $4,018; from $75,000 up it lands in the 22% or 24% bracket, and the top state rate decides the rest. At $150,000, Oregon filers keep the least: $2,922.
Per biweekly paycheck, the same $5,000 raise is worth between $119.04 and $135.29 more at $75,000.
For each state and starting salary, we calculated 2026 take-home pay twice, before and after a $5,000 raise, for a W-2 employee with no other income, using the standard deduction and no pre-tax retirement contributions. The difference is what the raise adds. Federal income tax uses the 2026 IRS brackets; Social Security is 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base and Medicare 1.45% (plus 0.9% above $200,000); state income tax uses each state's 2026 brackets, deductions, exemptions and credits, including law changes during 2026. Local income taxes and state payroll programs aren't included. Married figures assume the raise is added to one household's combined wages.
Putting part of a raise into a 401(k) shrinks the tax bite, because pre-tax contributions skip federal and most state income tax. Try your own numbers in the paycheck calculator, or see full take-home pay by state in our take-home pay study.
Use this data
You're welcome to use these figures, charts and the CSV with a link to this page as the source. Media questions: hello@aiprecisetools.com.
AIPreciseTools Research, "What a $5,000 Raise Really Adds to Your Paycheck in Every State (2026)," November 12, 2026. https://aiprecisetools.com/studies/raise-take-home-by-state-2026
Frequently asked questions
How much of a $5,000 raise will I take home?
About $3,518 to $3,095 a year on a $75,000 salary, depending on your state. That's $119.04 to $135.29 more per biweekly paycheck.
Can a raise put me in a higher tax bracket and lower my pay?
No. Only the dollars above a bracket threshold are taxed at the higher rate, so a raise always increases take-home pay, just by less than the raise itself.
How can I keep more of a raise?
Raise your 401(k) or HSA contribution. Pre-tax contributions skip federal income tax and, in most states, state income tax, so part of the raise goes to savings instead of taxes.
Can I use this data in an article?
Yes. Please credit AIPreciseTools and link to this page. The full dataset is available as a CSV download.