Payroll Tax Statistics

Key Takeaways

• 1In 2023, the Social Security payroll tax rate for employees and employers combined is 12.4% on wages up to the taxable maximum of $160,200
• 2The Medicare payroll tax rate is 1.45% each for employees and employers with no wage cap in 2023, totaling 2.9%
• 3Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% applies to high earners above $200,000 single filer wages in 2023
• 4Total US payroll tax revenue from Social Security was $1.222 trillion in FY 2022
• 5Medicare payroll taxes contributed $368.5 billion to HI Trust Fund in 2022
• 6FICA withholdings totaled $1.55 trillion in 2022 per IRS data
• 7In 2022, 170 million workers paid FICA taxes averaging $10,500 each
• 8Payroll tax paid by 94% of workforce up to cap in 2021
• 9Average SS taxable earnings $60,000 in 2022
• 1055% of payroll tax from bottom 90% earners 2022
• 11Women paid 39% of total FICA contributions in 2022 despite 47% workforce
• 12Top 1% earners paid 4.2% of SS payroll taxes due to cap in 2021
• 13Payroll taxes reduce GDP growth by 0.5% annually per CBO
• 14SS payroll tax cut 2% in 2011 boosted GDP 0.1-0.3%
• 15Eliminating wage cap could raise $1T revenue decade

This blog post explains the 2023 payroll tax rates and how they fund Social Security and Medicare.