FICA is the shorthand people use for Social Security tax and Medicare tax together. On a paycheck stub those two lines are usually withheld from the employee. On the employer’s books there is a matching pair of company expenses. The two sides are easy to mix up when someone asks, “What does this person cost?”
The employer share in this lab
IRS Publication 15 for 2026 states that the Social Security tax rate on taxable wages is 6.2% each for the employer and the employee, and that the Social Security wage base limit is $184,500. The Medicare tax rate is 1.45% each for the employee and the employer, with no wage base limit. Those sentences are the source for every employer FICA line on this site.
The Social Security Administration publishes the same 2026 contribution and benefit base of $184,500. An employee whose wages meet or exceed that amount, and that employee’s employer, each contribute 6.2% of $184,500, which is $11,439.00. Wages above the base still face the 1.45% Medicare tax on both sides.
In the lab’s formula, employer Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to $184,500. Employer Medicare is 1.45% of the wage figure you entered. The sum of those two amounts is called employer FICA on the result sheet. If you enter $52,000, employer Social Security is $3,224.00, employer Medicare is $754.00, and employer FICA is $3,978.00.
The employee share is not in the total
Employee Social Security and employee Medicare are withheld from the paycheck. They reduce the amount the person takes home. They are not an extra check the company writes on top of wages. This site does not estimate that withholding, does not read a W-4, and does not use Publication 15-T.
Additional Medicare Tax is also an employee item. Publication 15 describes a 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above a threshold, withheld from the employee. The employer does not match that 0.9% in the ordinary case. The lab does not add Additional Medicare Tax as a company cost.
What the wage base does to a high salary
When you enter $200,000, employer Social Security does not keep climbing at 6.2% of the whole figure. It stops at 6.2% of $184,500, which is $11,439.00. Employer Medicare on $200,000 is $2,900.00. Employer FICA is therefore $14,339.00, not 7.65% of $200,000.
That cap is per employee in a calendar year in this model. Two people at $100,000 each are not treated as one $200,000 wage base. The headcount planner multiplies a per-person FICA amount by headcount for that reason.
Where to read the official text
The employer rates and the 2026 wage base are in IRS Publication 15 (Circular E), including the HTML edition at IRS.gov/publications/p15 and the PDF at IRS.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf. The SSA contribution and benefit base page lists $184,500 for 2026. If those publications change, the comments in this site’s shared model file should be updated with them. The calculator is an estimate, not a substitute for the publication.
Open the cost of one employee tool if you want those two FICA lines next to FUTA and SUTA that you type yourself.