Net-to-gross works backward from a take-home pay target to find the gross salary you'd need before deductions. Enter the after-tax amount you want to receive, and this calculator estimates the gross US salary that would produce it, using the same federal and state tax assumptions as PiggyEgg's other US calculators.
How this is calculated
There's no simple algebra to invert progressive tax brackets, so this searches numerically: it tries gross salaries until the resulting net income (via the exact same tax calculation as the Gross to Net calculator) matches your target — guaranteeing the two calculators always agree with each other.
Use this alongside a real offer
Once you have an actual offer's gross figure, run it through the Gross to Net Salary Calculator to sanity-check whether it meets your target take-home.
Why gross pay must be higher than take-home pay in the US
A US paycheck is reduced by federal income tax, and in most states, state income tax, plus Social Security and Medicare (FICA) withholding, before it reaches your bank account — which is why the gross salary you'd need to negotiate for a given take-home target is always higher than that target itself. This calculator estimates that gap using the same tax assumptions already built into PiggyEgg's other US calculators, so the result reflects a realistic full-paycheck estimate. Exact results still depend on your specific state, filing status, and other withholding, which is why this is an estimate, not payroll or tax advice.
Examples
Target take-home example
If you want $4,000 a month in take-home pay, enter that target above — the calculator works backward through federal tax, FICA, and (where applicable) state tax to estimate the gross salary you'd need before deductions.
Comparing job offers
If you're comparing two offers where one quotes a gross salary and the other quotes a take-home target, use this calculator to convert the take-home figure into a gross salary you can compare directly against the other offer.