Pull up your pay stub (the breakdown that arrives with each paycheck) and you will find a deduction labeled FICA - or two lines called Social Security and Medicare. Together they take 7.65% of your pay. Every paycheck, starting with your very first dollar. No standard deduction shields it, and no W-4 setting turns it down.
That makes FICA different from federal income tax, and it explains why people who owe zero income tax still watch money leave every check. If you have wondered what this tax is, where the money goes, and whether it ever stops, here is the plain-English version.
The short answer: FICA is two flat taxes - 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare. Your employer quietly pays the same amount again on your behalf, and in 2026 the Social Security piece stops once your wages pass $184,500.
What FICA stands for
FICA is the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, the law that funds Social Security and Medicare through payroll taxes (taxes taken directly out of wages before you are paid). The name reveals the design: these are structured as insurance contributions, not general taxes. You pay in while you work, and the system pays out when you retire, become disabled, or reach Medicare age.
The two taxes inside FICA
| Tax | You pay | Your employer pays | 2026 limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social Security | 6.2% | 6.2% | First $184,500 of wages |
| Medicare | 1.45% | 1.45% | None - all wages |
| Additional Medicare | 0.9% | No match | Wages over $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly) |
Your share on a typical paycheck is 6.2% + 1.45% = 7.65%. Here is what each piece does.
Social Security: 6.2%, up to a cap
Social Security tax is 6.2% of your wages, but only up to the wage base (the maximum amount of yearly wages the tax applies to). For 2026, the wage base is $184,500.
That puts a ceiling on the tax: 6.2% of $184,500 is $11,439, the most anyone pays into Social Security through wages in 2026. Earn past the wage base and the 6.2% switches off for the rest of the year - one reason some high earners see bigger paychecks in November and December. On January 1, the meter resets.
On a $75,000 salary, Social Security tax comes to $4,650 for the year.
Medicare: 1.45%, no cap
Medicare tax is 1.45% of all your wages. There is no wage base and no switch-off point. A $75,000 salary pays $1,087.50 a year.
High earners pay a bit more: an additional Medicare tax of 0.9% applies to wages over $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. Your employer does not match this extra piece - it is yours alone.
Your employer pays it too
For every FICA dollar you pay, your employer pays a matching dollar: another 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare, on top of your salary. It never appears on your pay stub because it never passes through your hands.
This is worth knowing because it reframes what your job contributes. On a $75,000 salary, you pay $5,737.50 in FICA - and your employer sends another $5,737.50 alongside it. Combined, 15.3% of your wages flows into Social Security and Medicare every year.
Self-employed? You pay both halves
Freelancers and business owners have no employer to split the bill, so they pay both sides: 15.3% in total, called self-employment tax. Same taxes, same wage-base rules, different name on the form. If you freelance on top of a W-2 job, your side earnings owe the self-employment version.
This is the single most common shock for new freelancers. Plan for it from your first invoice, not from your first tax bill.
A full example: FICA on a $220,000 salary
The $75,000 case above is simple because that salary never reaches the cap, so 7.65% comes out of every paycheck all year. A bigger salary is where FICA gets interesting. Take a single filer earning $220,000 in 2026.
Social Security stops at the wage base. The 6.2% applies only to the first $184,500, capping this person’s Social Security tax at $11,439 - the exact same maximum a $184,500 earner pays. Spread evenly across the year, they cross the wage base around early November, and the 6.2% switches off for the rest of the year. Each remaining paycheck keeps about $1,137 that used to go to Social Security.
Medicare does not stop. The 1.45% keeps applying to all $220,000, which is $3,190 for the year. And the extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax applies to the $20,000 above the $200,000 threshold - another $180.
Add it up: $11,439 + $3,190 + $180 = $14,809 in FICA. Here is the part most people miss. That works out to an effective rate of 6.7%, lower than the flat 7.65% a $75,000 earner pays. Because Social Security shuts off at the cap, FICA takes a smaller share of a large salary than of a modest one.
What FICA actually funds
Social Security is mostly a monthly-check system: retirement benefits, disability benefits, and survivor benefits for spouses and children when a worker dies. Medicare is health insurance, mainly for people 65 and older.
Two useful ideas follow from that. First, the system is pay-as-you-go: today’s workers fund today’s retirees. Second, paying in builds your own record - Social Security tracks your taxed earnings year by year and calculates your future benefit from that history. FICA behaves less like a pure tax and more like a required contribution with your name on it.
Why FICA is on every paycheck, even when income tax is not
Federal income tax starts with a standard deduction - in 2026, a single filer’s first $16,100 of income owes no income tax at all (the full bracket math is in the 2026 federal tax brackets). Plenty of part-time and lower-income workers owe little or no federal income tax for the year.
FICA works the opposite way. It is flat, it starts at dollar one, and no filing status, deduction, or credit changes it. Move to a state with no income tax and FICA still arrives on schedule - see states with no income tax for that list.
For a single filer earning $75,000 in 2026, the two burdens are closer than most people guess: about $7,670 in federal income tax and $5,737.50 in FICA. The tax nobody talks about runs nearly as large as the one everyone argues about. To see both on your own numbers - plus state tax and your final take-home - use the take-home pay calculator. And if gross-versus-net is new territory, gross vs net pay walks through a full paycheck line by line.
What trips people up about FICA
A few details cause real confusion, and getting them wrong can cost you money.
Self-employment tax is not 15.3% of your whole profit. You first multiply your net self-employment earnings by 92.35%, then apply the 15.3%. That 92.35% step exists because employees never pay FICA on their employer’s half, so the math removes an equivalent slice to keep both sides even. On $50,000 of net profit, the tax runs on $46,175, not the full $50,000.
You deduct half of your self-employment tax. Once you calculate it, one half comes off your income before income tax is figured - the equivalent of the employer share an employee never gets taxed on. It does not shrink the self-employment tax itself, only the income tax on top, but it is real relief a salaried worker cannot claim.
The extra Medicare tax is withheld differently than it is owed. Your employer must withhold the 0.9% once your wages pass $200,000, whatever your filing status - but the tax you actually owe uses $200,000 for single filers and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. So a couple can have too much taken from one big paycheck and reconcile it on Form 8959 when they file, getting the difference back.
FAQ
Is FICA the same as federal income tax?
No. They are separate taxes with separate rules. Federal income tax uses brackets and deductions and funds the general government. FICA is flat, has almost no adjustments, and funds Social Security and Medicare specifically. Your paycheck pays both at the same time.
Can I reduce or opt out of FICA?
If you earn wages, essentially no. There is no deduction, credit, or W-4 change that lowers it. Even pre-tax 401(k) contributions, which cut your income tax, still get charged FICA first.
Do I ever get FICA back in my tax refund?
Normally no - unlike income-tax withholding, FICA is the final tax, not an advance payment. One exception: if you change jobs mid-year and your combined wages pass the $184,500 wage base, both employers withhold Social Security separately, and you claim the extra back when you file your return.
What happens when I hit the Social Security wage base?
The 6.2% stops for the rest of the calendar year, so your take-home pay rises. Medicare’s 1.45% keeps going on every dollar, and the additional 0.9% applies past $200,000 for single filers. Everything resets on January 1.
Why does my pay stub say OASDI instead of FICA?
Same tax, different label. OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance - the formal name of the Social Security program. Some payroll systems show one combined FICA line, while others split Social Security (OASDI) and Medicare into two.
This guide is general information, not tax advice. Figures are for tax year 2026 and were last reviewed on July 4, 2026.
Sources
- IRS Tax Topic 751 - Social Security and Medicare withholding rates and the 2026 wage base ($184,500)
- IRS Tax Topic 560 - additional Medicare tax thresholds
- IRS Tax Topic 554 - self-employment tax: 15.3% rate, 92.35% of net earnings, one-half deductible
- SSA Contribution and Benefit Base - the 2026 Social Security wage base
- IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 - 2026 standard deduction, used in the income-tax comparison
