Hacker News Reader

From Europe too, they have progressive system same as we do, if you earn below certain threshold you pay no taxes, and amount specified $15/hr is before tax. Someone from US can probably elaborate on the exact numbers where you start paying the tax, as far as I know it depends if you have children etc.

View on HN

Yes, hourly earning in the US is customarily gross earning (before taxes).

The median rule of hourly earnings to yearly earnings is 40 hours/week and 50 weeks/year, which results in every $1/hour == $2000/year in earnings.

For $15/hour, that's about $30,000. For a single person in California, without dependents and claiming themselves for one exemption, it would be 4,264.50 (14.22%) in Federal taxes and 579.35 (1.93%) in State taxes for a total of 4,843.85 (16.15%) in taxes.

Calculator: https://www.tax-brackets.org/californiataxtable

50 weeks a year? That is only 2 weeks off!

Many people in the US don't even get that. Having two weeks vacation is usually waved in peoples faces as an incentive not to leave after a few years of full time employement.

50 paid weeks per year. If you're lucky, you have paid holidays and paid vacation time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com