PaycheckCalc

City paycheck calculator

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Paycheck Calculator (2026)

Enter your annual salary below to see your Bethlehem, Pennsylvania take-home pay after federal, state, FICA, and city/local taxes for 2026.

Enter your salary to begin

Type above or pick a quick salary to see your 2026 take-home pay instantly.

Data pending verification

Pennsylvania Local Services Tax (small fixed annual amount withheld per pay period in Bethlehem and most PA cities) is not modeled in {localRate} or {localTax}.

Quick answer

Yes. Bethlehem levies a 1% Earned Income Tax on resident wages, the Pennsylvania statutory baseline rate. At $85,000 single, a Bethlehem resident takes home $65,168 after federal tax, FICA, Pennsylvania's 3.07% flat state tax, and the Bethlehem local line. The former Bethlehem Steel campus anchors the city's post-industrial cultural identity.

Bethlehem spans the Lehigh and Northampton county border across both sides of the Lehigh River and levies a 1% local Earned Income Tax on resident wages, the standard Pennsylvania statutory baseline. The rate splits between a city share and the Bethlehem Area School District share, both withheld at the source. The city's economic identity pivots on the closure of Bethlehem Steel in 1995, the defining moment in the long decline of US steelmaking. The former steel campus, twenty-some blast furnaces along the south side of the river, was redeveloped as SteelStacks and the ArtsQuest cultural complex, with the Wind Creek Bethlehem casino occupying part of the same site. Lehigh University (engineering, business) and Moravian College anchor the higher-education base; B. Braun Medical (German-headquartered medical-devices manufacturer) operates a major US plant in adjacent Allentown. Pennsylvania imposes no SDI on wages. At $85,000 for a single Bethlehem resident, federal tax is $9,870, Pennsylvania state tax is $2,610, FICA is $6,503, and the Bethlehem local line is $850, leaving take-home of $65,168. Run the calculator above with your own salary to model pre-tax contributions and Pennsylvania state plus Bethlehem local stack together.

$85,000 single filer take-home comparison

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

$65,200

Pennsylvania (no city tax)

$66,000

Texas (no income tax)

$68,600

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania take-home is -$800 vs the state-only figure and -$3,500 vs the no-income-tax baseline.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania local tax breakdown

Local bracket schedule applied by the calculator for 2026.

Taxable IncomeRate
$0+1%

What this estimate includes

This calculator computes Bethlehem, Pennsylvania take-home pay using 2026 federal brackets after the standard deduction, FICA contributions (Social Security up to the annual wage base, Medicare on all wages, plus the Additional Medicare Tax above the filing-status threshold), Pennsylvania's state income tax schedule, the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania local income tax. It excludes employer-side payroll taxes, custom W-4 elections, supplemental-wage handling for bonuses or equity vesting, and income from sources other than W-2 wages. Per-city resident and non-resident rules are described in the prose above where they differ.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania paycheck FAQ

What is the federal tax bill on $85,000 single in Bethlehem?
On $85,000 single, the federal line works out to $9,870, anchored in the 22% marginal bracket after the standard deduction. Federal mechanics apply uniformly across all states, so a Bethlehem single filer sees the same federal line as a counterpart in Allentown, Pittsburgh, or any other US city on the same gross.
How is Bethlehem's local Earned Income Tax structured?
Bethlehem's 1% combined EIT splits between the city share and the Bethlehem Area School District share. Both are withheld at the source on resident wages, and the city covers residents on both the Lehigh and Northampton county sides under a single municipal jurisdiction. At $85,000 the Bethlehem line resolves to $850, a meaningful reduction below Allentown's local layer.
Does the same Bethlehem EIT apply on both the Lehigh and Northampton county sides?
Residents on both county sides fall under the same Bethlehem EIT. The city is one of the few Pennsylvania municipalities that spans two counties, with the Lehigh County side and the Northampton County side sharing a single Bethlehem Area School District. Property taxes and county-level services differ between the sides, but the local income-tax line is identical.
How does Pennsylvania's state tax stack with Bethlehem's local rate?
PA's flat 3.07% state tax on wages stacks straightforwardly on Bethlehem's local layer, with no bracket schedule and no SDI line. Bethlehem residents see $2,610 state plus $850 city as the state-and-local total at $85,000. Pre-tax 401(k) contributions reduce federal taxable wages but not Pennsylvania state tax, because PA uses its own wage definition.
What changes for married filing jointly, head of household, or filing separately at $85,000 in Bethlehem?
A joint filer at $85,000 keeps about $69,198 for the year, $4,030 more the single estimate. Wider federal MFJ brackets and the doubled federal standard deduction explain most of that gap. Pennsylvania's flat rate is filing-status-neutral; the 1% Bethlehem EIT applies per worker, not per household. Head of Household clears about $68,090, around $2,922 more than Single, and combined two-return MFS take-home lands about $4,030 less than MFJ.
How does Bethlehem's EIT compare to Allentown's?
Allentown sits a short drive west and levies a meaningfully higher combined EIT than Bethlehem's 1%, despite the two cities sharing the Lehigh Valley logistics corridor and a similar economic base. The rate gap comes mostly from the school district share. At $85,000, a Bethlehem resident keeps more after the local layer than an Allentown counterpart on the same gross.

See also

Run the full Pennsylvania paycheck calculatorCompare to Philadelphia paycheck calculatorCompare to Pittsburgh paycheck calculatorCompare to Scranton paycheck calculatorCompare to Erie, Pennsylvania paycheck calculatorCompare to Allentown paycheck calculatorCompare to Reading, Pennsylvania paycheck calculatorCompare to Harrisburg paycheck calculatorCompare to Wilkes-Barre paycheck calculatorBrowse all city paycheck calculatorsBrowse paycheck calculators by statePaycheck and tax glossaryHow we calculate paycheck taxes

Reviewed

How This Page Is Reviewed

The Bethlehem, Pennsylvania paycheck page is reviewed against primary federal, state, and city sources before each major tax-year update. Source links below are the references used to validate brackets, wage bases, and supported local taxes.

Reviewed by

PaycheckCalc Research Desk

Last reviewed

2026-06-25