How Hawaii taxes a paycheck
Hawaii's income tax has twelve rates, from 1.4% to 11%, and until 2024 its brackets were so compressed that the 7.6% rate began at $48,000 of taxable income. Act 46, signed in June 2024, is the largest tax cut in the state's history: it doubles the standard deduction in steps and widens every bracket in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031. For 2026 the 7.6% bracket starts at $48,000 and the 11% top rate at $325,000 for a single filer; by 2031 those thresholds roughly double.
The 2026 standard deduction is $4,400 single and $8,800 married, with a $1,144 personal exemption per person and per dependent. Even after Act 46 those are small next to the federal $16,100, which is why Hawaii's effective rate on ordinary salaries stays among the highest in the country.
Hawaii employees also pay into temporary disability insurance, up to half the cost of the plan and no more than 0.5% of wages up to a weekly cap, which appears on paychecks as TDI and is not included here. There are no local income taxes; the four counties are funded by property tax and a share of the general excise tax.
How much taxes are taken out of paychecks in Hawaii?
On a $60,000 salary in 2026, a single filer in Hawaii pays about $5,020 in federal income tax, $4,590 in Social Security and Medicare, and about $3,030 in Hawaii income tax, leaving roughly $47,360 a year or $1,822 every two weeks. The state share is about 5% of gross pay, the third highest of any state at that salary after Oregon and Maine.
At $150,000 Hawaii's tax is about $9,930, an effective rate of 6.6%, because the 7.9% and 8.25% brackets apply above $125,000 and $175,000. The Act 46 widenings will lower those figures in 2027 and again in 2029.
Hawaii compared with other states
Hawaii has no neighbours, so the comparisons are with the West Coast states its residents move between. California taxes a $60,000 single salary at about $1,650 plus $780 of SDI; Washington and Alaska tax no wages; Oregon takes about $3,980. Hawaii's $3,030 sits between California and Oregon at that salary and above California until incomes pass roughly $200,000.
The general excise tax is the other half of Hawaii's picture. At 4% (4.5% on Oahu) it applies to nearly everything including rent, food and medical services, and is passed through to consumers at up to 4.712%. It is not a payroll deduction and this page does not model it.
Withholding forms and filing status in Hawaii
Hawaii employers withhold from Form HW-4, on which employees claim allowances against Hawaii's tables. The married brackets are exactly double the single ones, so a two-earner couple on similar incomes pays about the same jointly as they would separately, while a one-earner couple benefits from the doubled thresholds and the $8,800 deduction. Act 46's bracket widenings apply to both schedules in the same proportion.
Hawaii has no reciprocal agreements and taxes non-residents on Hawaii-source wages, including work performed in the state by mainland employees on assignment. Hawaii residents working remotely for a mainland employer pay Hawaii tax on those wages, and the state's general excise tax, unlike a sales tax, applies to the services those residents buy as well as the goods.