By Kendrick Marshall
Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.)
(TNS)
Earning a six-figure salary is considered an achievement for many workers.
In California, you’d need to make significantly more than $100,000 per year to take home a six-figure paycheck after taxes, according to a recent GoBankingRates analysis.
The personal finance website looked into the annual salary needed to net at least $100,000 in every state across the nation.
“If you’ve landed a job making $100,000 or more, the reality is that money isn’t all yours for the keeping,” GoBankingRates reporter Jordan Rosenfeld wrote in a March 30 article.
“Federal income taxes and Social Security and Medicare take a chunk,” Rosenfeld wrote. “Then state and local taxes can take another bite. That six-figure salary could quickly shrink to a take-home pay of five figures.”
Nationally, GoBankingRates found that the average person needed to earn $130,000 to take home $100,000 after factoring in federal and state income taxes.
GoBankingRates identified the Golden State as one of five states—along with Oregon, Maryland, Hawaii, and Minnesota—where you needed to earn the most to net $100,000.
California workers need to make a gross salary of roughly $144,939 to take home six figures, the report found, due to a so-called “tax burden” of about 31%.
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, about 30% of California renters earn more than $100,000 a year.
In comparison, workers in Oregon need an annual salary of $148,000 to earn $100,000 after taxes, GoBankingRates said, overcoming a 32.6% tax burden.
Meanwhile, workers in Wyoming, Texas, South Dakota, Washington and Tennessee each need $130,999 in annual income to pocket $100,000 in take-home pay, according to GoBankingRates.
[Editor’s note: Nine states don’t tax income and thus tied for the least amount needed to net $100,000: $130,999. Those states are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. In addition, four states have income tax below 3% and came in just above the states with no income tax: Louisiana, Ohio, Arizona, and North Dakota, according to GoBankingRates.]
How many U.S. workers actually earn $100,000 a year?
About 18% of all adult workers in the United States—roughly 38 million people—earn six figures a year, according to data from online research company YouGov Profiles.
About 25% of men in the workforce earn an annual salary of more than $100,000, the website said, compared to just 12% of women.
The average median household income in California is $96,334, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Where is making $100,000 after taxes the hardest?
These were the 10 states in the nation where workers need to earn the most per year to take home at least $100,000 after taxes, according to GoBankingRates:
- Oregon: $148,309 per year
- Maryland: $146,521
- Hawaii: $144,939
- California: $144,879
- Minnesota: $143,539
- Maine: $143,206
- Delaware: $142,135
- Montana: $142,121
- New York: $141,923
- Virginia: $141,801
Which states require lowest salary to earn six-figure paycheck?
According to GoBankingRates, workers in these U.S. states had to make $130,999 per year to earn a six-figure paycheck after taxes:
- Wyoming
- Washington
- Texas
- Tennessee
- South Dakota
- New Hampshire
- Nevada
- Florida
- Alaska
- North Dakota
How did GoBankingRates come up with findings?
To determine the annual income needed to earn $100,000 after taxes in each state, GoBankingRates said it looked at income taxes on the federal and state level including Federal Insurance Contributions Act payroll tax, which funds the Medicare and Social Security programs.
The income tax estimates were created using an in-house calculator for people who filed as single or head of household.
The personal finance website then calculated income tax amounts to find each state’s tax burden.
All data used in the report was up-to-date as of March 12.
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© 2025 the Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.). Visit www.mercedsunstar.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC
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Tags: Income Taxes, Payroll, salaries, salary, Taxes
