What payroll taxes do Massachusetts employers pay?

Employers pay the matching 7.65% FICA (6.2% Social Security plus 1.45% Medicare), federal FUTA, Massachusetts state unemployment insurance, a small workforce training surcharge, and an employer share of Paid Family and Medical Leave contributions.

What is the Massachusetts SUI wage base and rate?

Massachusetts charges state unemployment insurance on the first 15,000 dollars of each employee's wages. New employers pay a standard rate around 1.45% to 2.42%; established employers receive an experience-based rate that can range much higher.

How does PFML affect employer payroll cost?

Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave is funded by a combined contribution of about 0.88% of wages up to the Social Security cap. Employers with 25 or more covered individuals must pay the employer share of the medical-leave portion.

Is FUTA reduced by the Massachusetts SUI credit?

Yes. The base FUTA rate is 6.0% on the first 7,000 dollars of wages, but timely state unemployment payments earn a 5.4% credit, leaving an effective 0.6% federal rate in a state with no credit reduction.

Does this include the employee's own taxes?

No. This calculator shows only the employer-side taxes and contributions. Employee withholding for income tax, the employee FICA share, and the employee PFML share are separate and reduce the worker's take-home pay.

Massachusetts Employer Payroll Tax Calculator

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Hiring in Massachusetts means more than salary — every employee carries a stack of employer-side payroll taxes. This calculator totals the federal and Massachusetts-specific contributions so you can budget the true cost of an employee.

How it works

The tool applies each tax to the right wage base:

Employer FICA   = 6.2% Social Security (to wage base) + 1.45% Medicare (all wages)
FUTA            = 0.6% effective on first $7,000 (after the 5.4% SUI credit)
MA SUI          = your rate on first $15,000 of wages
Workforce surch = 0.056% on first $15,000 (training fund)
Employer PFML   = ~0.42% medical-leave share on wages to the SS cap (25+ employees)

Social Security stops at the federal wage base; Medicare has no cap. Massachusetts SUI and the workforce training surcharge apply only to the first 15,000 dollars. The PFML employer contribution applies to wages up to the Social Security cap and is required when you have 25 or more covered individuals.

Example

For a 60,000 dollar salary with a 1.87% SUI rate: employer FICA is about 4,590 dollars, FUTA is 42 dollars, SUI is 280 dollars on the first 15,000, the workforce surcharge is about 8 dollars, and the employer PFML share is roughly 252 dollars — a combined employer burden near 5,172 dollars, or about 8.6% on top of salary.

Notes

Rates and wage bases change annually, and your experience-rated SUI rate is specific to your account. The PFML employer obligation depends on your headcount, and very small employers may be exempt from the medical-leave employer share. Verify your current figures with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and the Department of Family and Medical Leave at mass.gov before running payroll.