Economic News
How Much You Need to Make in Each State to Net $100K
Landing on a definition of what “wealthy” is can be extremely difficult. After all, even if someone makes a lot of money on paper, their expenses might make it so there’s hardly anything left after the essentials are covered. That said I’d expect most Americans would agree that, if you’re making six figures, you’re doing pretty well. Then again, as a new study by GOBankingRates reminds us, there’s a big difference between grossing $100k and netting it.
Given the different tax situations around the country, GOBankingRates created a map showing how much you’d need to make in order to take home six figures in each state. This study accounts for things like federal, state, and local income taxes as well as payroll taxes. The results are truly interesting, although there are also some asterisks to be discussed as well.
As you can see, Oregon has the distinction of being the one state where you’ll need to make more than $152k in order to net $100k. There’s some good reason for that as Oregon does not collect sales tax, leading to higher-than-average state income taxes. Despite that, states like California and Maryland weren’t far behind. In fact residents of both the Golden and the Old Line States need to make more than $150k to net six figures. Other states in similar company include Hawaii ($149,583), Idaho ($148,399), Maine ($148,265), and Minnesota ($148,100).
On the other side of things, states like Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming don’t have state income taxes, giving them a bit of an unfair advantage here. Additionally New Hampshire and Tennesee assess income tax but only on interest and dividend income, meaning those taxes weren’t factored into the study. As a result it was a big nine-way tie for first place with at $134,630 (note: oddly GBR’s listing of all the states puts the figures for Nevada and New Hampshire at $134,629 — a dollar less — for some reason).
Now that we’ve seen how much you’d need to make in order to bring home $100k, what will a $100k salary net you in some of the various states? In those top nine states, a six-figure salary will give you $73,077 after income and payroll taxes. Meanwhile in Oregon that number drops to $65,092, just below the $65,541 you’d get in Maryland and $66,157 you’d keep in Calfornia.
Like I mentioned at the beginning, this latest study doesn’t tell the whole story about which states tax their citizens most (nor did it aim to). For that you’ll want to consider not just income taxes but also sales taxes and property taxes. Still, for those workers adverse to income taxes and who want to take home the most of their salary, you can now take a look at this map and aim for green.
