Paycheck Calculator Louisiana - LA

(Tax Year 2024: Last Updated on September 07, 2024)

Utilize our free Lousiana paycheck calculator to calculate your net pay or take-home pay by entering your period or yearly income along with the necessary federal, state, and local W4 information. Louisiana's state income tax brackets run from 2.00% to 6.00%.

Income Information

---

Pay Type Salary Hourly

Pay

Pay Frequency Weekly Bi-Weekly Semi-Monthly Monthly Quarterly Annually

Hourly Rate

Hours (Straight Time)

Hours (Time & 1/2)

Hours (Double Time)

Bonus/Commission/Tips

Federal Withholding

---

Marital Status Single Married

Withholding Allowances

Additional Withholding

State Withholding

---

State 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 West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

---

Additional Information

*Name

Check Date

Calculate Paycheck

Employee Information
Employee Name
Check Date
Pay Frequency
Hourly Rate
Federal Withholding
Marital Status
Withholding Allowances
State Withholding
State

Pay Type	Amount
Salary

Pay Type	Hours	Amount
Straight Time
Time & 1/2
Double Time
Gross Pay

Deduction Type	Amount
Federal Income Tax
Social Security
Medicare
Total Deductions

This Check (Take Home)

Back Download PDF

Table Of Content

Louisiana - LA Paycheck Calculator: Hourly and Salary

Whether setting up a new business or comparing different job offers, paycheck calculation for employees is an unavoidable job. So if you are planning to move to Louisiana and start your new job or business, then you must read this Louisiana paycheck guide. From moving to Louisiana to paycheck calculation, this guide will provide you with every step. So let's get started.

Moving to Louisiana:

Louisiana, also known as The Pelican State is a southeastern U.S. state located on the Gulf of Mexico. This state is a magical place known for Cajun cuisine, Creole flavor, and great Southern hospitality.

This state offers numerous reasons for people to move in here including low cost of living, lower housing prices, improving job market, diverse landscape, amazingly fun-loving people.

Here are a few things you must know about, before moving to Louisiana:

Economy and Job Market:

Louisiana Economy is on the rise after a downward slide, especially getting a boost due to wild nightlife and tourism. This state has an unemployment rate of 4.4% (0.2% higher than the national average), and an overall rank of 49^th for "best states for the job and economic opportunities", that may sound less appealing. However, with large capital projects planned and growing economy, the experts are projecting significant growth in the job market especially in industries like tourism, agriculture, and health care, thus one must avail the opportunity before the boom.

Housing:

Housing is quite reasonable in Louisiana. With the current median home value of $141,397 and the median rent price of $1,200, this state is ranked 19th overall for affordability, and 26th for affordable cost of living by U.S. News.

Cost of Living:

Cost of Living in Louisiana considering factors like transportation, healthcare, housing, food, and energy, is significantly lower than the national average, with the point of 87, where the national average is 100 points.

Education:

Louisiana State offers a high-quality education in numerous schools, colleges, and universities across the state. Some of its acclaimed institutions are Louisiana State University, University of New Orleans, and Louisiana Tech in Ruston.

Lifestyle and Outdoor Activities:

Louisiana State is known for its festive lifestyle, jazz music, delicious cosine, and fun-loving people. The state is also known as Festival Capital of America due to 400 plus festivals every year to celebrate literally everything. Moreover, this state offers many other opportunities for outdoor lovers including fishing, golf, and kayaking. Some popular must-visit spots here are Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, and the St Louis Cathedral, Mardi Gras and many more.

After reading all the earlier mentioned perks, you must have fallen in love with this state. So if you already made up your mind to settle in here, and start a new life with a new business or job, then one thing you must know is the estimated employment cost of your business or your take-home pay as an employee.

We know, calculating Paycheck or take-home pay is not an easy job, as it includes several factors like hours worked, taxes, federal and state laws and tons of calculations that can be a bit tricky and confusing. But don't you worry! We have done all the hard work for you.

Our experts have created a one-of-its-kind Louisiana Paycheck Calculator along with a comprehensive Paycheck calculation guide that would educate you with Federal State Payroll facts, taxes & laws as well as guide you to deduce the exact paycheck amount for the employee.

So, without wasting any of your time, let's get started with some of the interesting Louisiana State Payroll facts.

Louisiana State Payroll Facts:

• Louisiana employees are required to pay Federal Withholding Tax at rates ranging from 0% to 37% depending on filing status and income level. Moreover, the employer and employees are also required to pay FICA taxes that comprise of Social Security Tax of 12.4% and Medicare tax of 2.9%.
• State also charges the State Withholding tax on the employee's paycheck, at the rate ranging from 2% to 6%, having three tax brackets, depending on income level and filing status.
• No city or county in Louisiana charges any local income tax or occupational tax onto its residents.
• Louisiana State doesn't have a state minimum wage, therefore, residents are required to follow the federal minimum wage law, having rates of $7.25 for non-exempted employees. Moreover, the Cash Minimum wage rate for tipped employees is $2.13, with the maximum tip credit of $5.12.
• Louisiana State doesn't require the employer to pay state disability insurance (SDI) tax. However, they are entitled to pay State Unemployment Insurance tax at the rates ranging from 0.10% to 6.20%, on the first wage of $7,700 earned by each employee in a year. However, new employers are given relief as they pay at lower rates ranging between 1.21% and 3.02%, depending on the industry.
• The state doesn't have any reciprocal agreement with any other state.
• The median household income of Louisiana residents, according to the United States Census Bureau is $47,940.
• The Livable wage in Louisiana state for a single adult is $11.28, and for a couple (one working) with 2 children is $24.94.
• The average salary in Louisiana ranges from approx. $28,779 / year to $213,882 / year, depending on Job.

As you are now well aware of Louisiana State Payroll Facts, let's get started with paycheck calculation. Following are the steps that are generally followed to calculate paycheck:

Step 1 - Calculating Gross Pay:

1. To calculate Gross Pay, first, you need to determine the Pay Type of an employee. It is whether an employee is paid on an hourly basis or salary basis.

Hourly Employees:

Hourly Base Employees are paid for each hour they work in a day or a week, at the mutually agreed hourly rate. However, the mutually agreed hourly rate must be as per the Federal and State Minimum Wage law.

Hourly Employees are also entitled to receive overtime, for each excess hours worked after Regular worked hours in a day or week. The overtime rate in most of the states is one and a half times the regular hourly rate.

Salaried Employees:

Salaried employees receive a fixed but mutually agreed on pay, for a decided pay frequency, usually semi-monthly or monthly. However, for gross payment determination for a pay period, the annual salary is divided by the pay frequency.

Most of the salaried employees are exempted from Overtime law. Therefore, they are not entitled to receive overtime, regardless of how many excess hours they work. However, some exceptional salaried employees may be eligible to receive overtime according to federal or state law.

2. Remember, Supplementary Wages like bonuses, commissions, and paid leaves, as well as double time and fringe benefits, are also taxable wages. Therefore they must also be included in gross pay before federal and state tax calculation.

Step 2 – Subtracting Pre-Tax Deductions (If Any):

Pre-Tax Deduction is an amount deducted from employee's gross pay before any withholding tax is deducted. These deductions have several advantages, including the reduction of taxable wages. Hence, increasing the take-home pay of an employee. However, not all deductions can be considered as free from all taxes, which means some of the deductions may require certain taxes to be withheld.

Some of the standard Pre-tax deductions are:

• Health Savings Accounts or FSA or HSA plans
• Commuter Benefits
• Healthcare Insurance
• Short-Term Disability
• Dental Insurance
• Medical Expenses and Flexible Spending Accounts
• Vision Benefits
• Retirement funds like a traditional 401(k)

Step 3 – Calculate and Subtract Federal Taxes:

Federal Taxes are taxes deducted from almost every employee, regardless of which state or county they work in.

Federal Taxes are calculated according to the details provided by the employee on Form W-4, which comprises of income, filing status, number of dependents, number of allowances, number of jobs, etc.

The details are form W-4, are assessed and used by the employer to deduce the federal tax bracket, in which the employee's taxable wage lay upon.

Federal Taxes ranges from 0% to 37% have seven tax brackets, depending on filing status, income, and the number of allowances claimed. Below is the income tax details for the year 2024:

Step 4 – Deduct FICA Taxes:

Along with Federal Withholding, employers are also required to withhold Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes from the employee's paycheck as well as pay a matching amount themselves to the IRS.

There are two types of FICA taxes:

1. Social Security:

Employers are entitled to withhold 6.2% from the first $132,900 (wage base limit for 2024), taxable wages earned by the employee. Moreover, the employer is also required to pay an equal amount to the IRS for each employee.

2. Medicare:

Medicare tax is another type of FICA Tax that an employer must withhold from the taxable gross wage of the employee, at the rate of 1.45%. Unlike social security, there is no wage base limit. However, if the employee earns more than the defined threshold than he/she is subjected to an additional 0.9% of the Additional Medicare Tax rate, for every dollar earned above the threshold amount.

Like Social Security, IRS also requires the employer to pay an equal amount of Medicare tax for each employee.

Step 5 – Payment of FUTA Taxes

The Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) is a tax that the IRS requires the employer to pay without deducting anything from the employee's paycheck.

The FUTA Tax rate for 2024 is 6.0% of the first taxable wage up to $7000 of an employee. However, once the taxable wage limit is crossed for a particular employee, then the employer no longer has to pay this tax.

What to reduce FUTA Tax?

Yes! Then you must pay State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) tax in full and on time and get a FUTA tax credit of up to 5.4%. Which means, you saved a whopping 90% from FUTA Tax.

Step 6 – Subtract Post-Tax Deductions (If any):

Although, employers are not required to withhold any amount as a post-tax deduction, unless if an employee voluntarily asks to do so. However, there are some deductions ordered by the court like child support or wage garnishment, which the employer is entitled to deduct.

Step 7 – Withhold Louisiana State Payroll Taxes:

As we have calculated Federal Payroll taxes, now it's time to calculate Louisiana State Payroll Taxes. The State requires the employer to pay some taxes himself and rest to withhold from the employee's paycheck. Following are the State payroll taxes that usually most of the employers and employees pay:

Louisiana State Income Tax

The state requires the employer to withhold the Louisiana State income tax from the employee's paycheck, according to the details provided by the employee on Form L-4, which contain all the necessary details of the employee such as filing status, a number of allowances to claim, number of jobs, etc. This form is filled by the employee at the starting of the job. The employee must ensure that the form is updated regularly when any significant event occurs like marriage, divorce or child's birth.

The Louisiana state income tax is divided into 3 tax brackets, ranging from 2% to 6%, depending on income level and filing status. Moreover, the state doesn't provide any Income-tax rate on Supplemental Wages and bonuses. Therefore, they must also be charged at the same rate as regular wages.

State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) Tax:

Besides, State income tax, Louisiana State also entitles the employers to pay State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) Tax at the rate range from 0.10% to 6.20% on the first $7,700 earned by each of their employees. However, New Employers are given relief to pay at lower rates ranging from 1.21% to 3.02% on wages earned by each employee.

Step 8 – Withhold Local Tax:

No city or county in Louisiana charges any local income tax.

Step 9 – Calculate Pay Check:

Once you are done with all elements (steps) discussed earlier, you will have a net pay amount for each employee. Now all you have to do is pay employees on time. Also, to file all Federal Taxes, State Taxes, FICA, and FUTA taxes on time, to avoid any penalties.

Federal and Louisiana Payroll Taxes and Laws:

• Louisiana State doesn't have a state minimum wage, so employers are required to pay at least the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour to non-exempted employees. Some employees are exempted from Federal Minimum Wage law including farmworkers, baby sitters, seasonal workers, informal workers and newspaper deliverers, etc.
• Tipped employees are also allowed to be paid at a cash minimum wage rate of $2.13, but with the maximum tip credit of $5.12.
• Like Minimum Wage, Louisiana State doesn't have overtime Law. Therefore, employees are protected under FLSA law and are required to be paid overtime at the rate of time and half of regular hourly rate for each excess hour they work after 40 hours in a workweek.
• Louisiana State requires the employer to provide UNPAID lunch breaks to the employees of age under 18, who are scheduled to work for 5 or more consecutive hours. However, neither state nor federal law requires the employer to provide paid or unpaid lunch breaks to adult employees. However, if the employer voluntarily provides the lunch break for 20 minutes or less then it must be paid and if it is for 30 minutes or more, then it can be UNPAID.
• Louisiana State doesn't regulate paid leaves. Therefore, employers have the discretion to provide benefits like holidays, sick days, or paid time off (PTO) benefits. However, an employer may require to offer unpaid leaves to the employees under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) law.
• Employees and employers are permitted to establish pay periods and paydays of its choosing except for the employees working in industries like mining, oil and gas, public service corporations, and manufacturers, who are required to be paid at least twice a month (or on higher pay frequency) on regularly scheduled paydays.

How to reduce taxes on your paycheck?

We are always looking for ways to dodge taxes and increase your paycheck amount. However, doing it with illegal may land you in huge trouble. However, there is a piece of good news! There are many legal ways to reduce payroll taxes, some of which are as follow:

• You can contribute to tax-advantaged accounts like 401(k), to grow your tax-free money until you can reuse them after retirement.
• You can invest your money in a flexible spending account (FSA) or health savings account (HSA) as a pre-tax contribution, which can be used for your medical expenses.
• Some employers offer pre-tax amount, to pay for public transit or parking via commuter cards.
• You can claim a fair number of Allowances on your federal and state income tax, to reduce taxes on the paycheck. However, claiming more than the required number of Allowances may lead to the underpayment of taxes, which results in a penalty from the IRS.

How to increase your paycheck amount?

Besides the ways to cut payroll taxes to increase paycheck amount, there are several other ways you can increase your take-home pay, some of them are as follow:

• Try earning more Supplemental wages like Bonuses, Overtime, Tips, and commissions.
• Perform better enough and convince your employer for wage appraisal.
• If you have extra time and energy after job than better look for a part-time job, which increases your take-home pay
• If your employer is unwilling to raise your wage, then better look for a high-paying job.
• Go through your company's policies, employment contract or discuss it with your employer, that there may be any fringe benefits like student loan payment, medical, vision and dental insurance plans, gym and many other benefits that are that can affect your paycheck and final take-home pay.

FAQs