What gross salary do you actually need?
Most calculators go salary → take-home. This one runs the other way: tell us your monthly expenses and savings goal, and we solve for the gross salary that gets you there after federal, NY State, and NYC tax, FICA, and your 401(k)/HSA/health insurance elections.
We add these together and multiply by 12 to get the annual take-home you need — that's the number every tax and contribution calculation below solves backwards from.
This calculator is built for NYC residents — federal, NY State, and the NYC resident local surcharge are always applied.
401(k)/403(b)/457(b) share the same contribution cap here (real 457(b) limits are technically independent and could stack, which isn't modeled). Pension (NYCERS/TRS/BERS) isn't an elective deferral, so no cap applies at all.
The match is money on top of your paycheck — it does not reduce the salary you need.
Other paycheck deductionsclick to expand
Most people only need health insurance and maybe a commuter benefit — the rest are here if they apply to you. Anything left at $0 is ignored.
Pre-tax (Section 125) for most employer plans — reduces income tax and FICA, same as an HSA.
up to $340/mo
up to $340/mo
up to $3,400/yr
up to $7,500/yr · independent of HSA/Healthcare FSA
You can't have both a Healthcare FSA and an HSA — since HSA enrollment is set above, Healthcare FSA is disabled.
Disability insurance is deliberately post-tax here — pre-tax premiums would make any paid-out benefit taxable, so most people pay these post-tax on purpose.
| Line item | Annual | Monthly |
|---|
NY State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave are mandatory payroll deductions for every NY W-2 employee — self-employed/1099 filers don't have this line.
| Savings goal | Monthly savings | Required annual salary |
|---|
This shows how much more gross salary you'd need if you pushed your monthly savings goal up (or down) by 5% and 10% — everything else about your tax situation and contributions held constant.
Assumptions used (click to expand)
We take your monthly expenses plus savings goal, multiply by 12, and binary-search for the gross salary whose net take-home lands on that number — after federal, NY State, and NYC resident tax brackets, the Social Security wage base cap, the Additional Medicare surtax, and your 401(k)/HSA elections. Traditional 401(k) contributions reduce taxable income; Roth contributions don't. HSA contributions are exempt from both income tax and FICA, regardless of 401(k) type.
This is a planning estimate, not a paycheck. Health insurance, commuter benefits, FSAs, life/disability insurance, union dues, and NY's mandatory SDI/PFL are all modeled in "Other paycheck deductions" above if you enter them — leave them at $0 if they don't apply. It otherwise assumes a single job with no other income.