Final Paycheck Calculator

How a final paycheck is actually calculated

A last check comes down to wages for the days you actually worked, plus any PTO cash-out, minus whatever one-time deductions your employer is entitled to take. Everything else is ordinary withholding applied on top.

For salary, the common employer method prorates by workdays. Divide your annual salary by the number of pay periods, divide that by the workdays in the period, then multiply by the days you worked. On $65,000 paid biweekly, one period is $2,500. Ten workdays in the period makes a daily rate of $250, so six workdays comes to $1,500. Some employers prorate by calendar days instead, which is why the calculator offers both, and the two answers can differ by a few hundred dollars.

For hourly work it is simpler: hours worked times your rate, plus any overtime hours at 1.5 times the regular rate for time over 40 in a workweek (29 U.S.C. 207(a)).

PTO is converted at an hourly rate. If you are salaried, the standard convention is annual salary divided by 2,080 hours (40 hours times 52 weeks). Forty unused hours on a $65,000 salary is about $1,250 gross. For the deeper version of that math, including accrual questions, see the PTO Payout Calculator and the PTO Accrual Calculator.

One legal point worth knowing if you are salaried and exempt: prorating pay is lawful in your first and last week of employment under 29 CFR 541.602(b)(6). Outside those weeks, an employer generally cannot dock an exempt salary for a partial-day absence.

When your employer legally has to pay you: quit vs laid off

How you left does not change the amount. It changes the timing, and that difference can run to weeks.

A few states require payment immediately when you are terminated: California, Colorado, Missouri and Montana. Massachusetts requires it on your last day of work. A second group runs on hours: Utah gives 24 hours, New Hampshire and Vermont 72 hours, Alaska three working days, and Nevada three days. Most states default to your next regular payday for both quits and terminations, and several set a backstop such as 14 or 15 days.

Four states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi) have no final-pay deadline statute at all, and Missouri has none for resignations. In those cases your employer's regular payday and written policy control, and the federal FLSA still expects payment by the next regular payday for the period you worked. The Department of Labor is explicit that federal law sets no separate final-paycheck deadline.

Enforcement usually comes from waiting-time penalties. California charges one day of wages for each day the check is late, up to 30 days. Arkansas can require double wages. If your check is late, a wage claim with your state labor department is normally free to file.

How PTO payout, severance, and bonuses get taxed on your last check

Your regular wages for the partial period are withheld the normal way, using the percentage-method tables against your pay frequency. Because a partial check annualizes to a low figure, federal withholding on that piece often looks smaller than usual.

PTO cash-out, severance, final bonuses and commissions are supplemental wages under IRS Publication 15, section 7. Paid separately from regular wages, they are commonly withheld at a flat 22% for federal tax. Above $1,000,000 of cumulative supplemental wages in a calendar year, the excess is withheld at 37%, and a W-4 cannot change that.

Worth repeating, because it catches people out every year: 22% is a withholding rate, not your tax rate. If your marginal rate is 12%, the extra comes back when you file. The Tax Refund Estimator shows roughly how much, and the W-4 Withholding Estimator helps you set the next job up properly.

FICA applies to all of it. Social Security is 6.2% up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, and Medicare is 1.45% with no cap plus 0.9% above the filing-status threshold. Severance is FICA wages, which the Supreme Court confirmed in United States v. Quality Stores (2014). If you have a package, run it through the Severance Pay Tax Calculator, and see FICA taxes explained for the background.

What can and cannot be taken out of your last paycheck

Some deductions are routine: a final health or dental premium, a garnishment that is still in force, or repayment of a negative PTO balance where you authorized it in writing. Garnishment limits do not disappear on a final check, and the Wage Garnishment Calculator and Disposable Income Calculator show how those caps work.

Other deductions have limits. Under 29 CFR 531.36, a deduction for the employer's benefit cannot cut your pay below the federal minimum wage for the hours you worked in that workweek. Most states also require written authorization before an employer can deduct for unreturned equipment, damage, or a cash shortage. And in most states a final paycheck cannot be made conditional on signing a release or returning a laptop, though a small number (South Dakota among them) do let an employer hold pay until company property comes back.

If your check is short or late, put the request in writing and hold on to your last pay stub and your handbook's PTO policy. If the employer still does not fix it, file a wage claim with your state labor department.