Where would you keep the most?
Hold salary, filing status, dependents, retirement savings, and pay frequency constant while every state and DC take-home figure is ranked from highest to lowest — the best state for take-home pay at the top, the worst state for taxes at the bottom.
Every jurisdiction ranked
Each page ranks that state against every other for the same scenario.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Washington, DC
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Common questions
Which state has the highest take-home pay?
The ranking on this page answers that for one fixed salary and a single-filer profile. States with no wage income tax cluster at the top, because federal tax and FICA are identical everywhere and the entire spread therefore comes from state rules.
Does this ranking include cost of living?
No, and that matters more than the ranking does. The whole spread between first and last on a mid-range salary is a few thousand dollars a year, which a difference in rent of a few hundred a month erases. This is the tax input to a moving decision, not the decision.
What salary is the ranking based on?
A single filer with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, at one fixed salary, so every jurisdiction is compared on identical terms. A different salary changes the order, because graduated-bracket states move relative to flat-rate ones as income rises.