What payroll taxes does a Utah employer pay?

Utah employers pay the matching 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare (FICA), federal unemployment tax (FUTA), and Utah state unemployment insurance (SUI). Utah has no state disability or paid-leave payroll tax.

What is the Utah new-employer SUI rate?

New Utah employers are assigned a state unemployment insurance rate that varies by industry, commonly around 1.4%, applied to the state taxable wage base (about 47,000 dollars in 2024). Established employers get experience-rated rates.

Federal unemployment tax is 6.0% on the first 7,000 dollars of each employee's wages, but employers who pay state unemployment on time receive a 5.4% credit, lowering the effective FUTA rate to 0.6%, or 42 dollars per employee.

Does Utah have a state disability or paid-leave tax?

No. Unlike states such as California or Washington, Utah does not impose an employer-paid state disability insurance or paid family-leave payroll tax, so SUI plus federal taxes are the main employer payroll costs.

How accurate is this estimate?

It uses standard FICA, the 0.6% effective FUTA rate, and a configurable Utah SUI rate and wage base. Your exact SUI rate and wage base are set annually by the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Utah Employer Payroll Tax Calculator

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Hiring in Utah costs more than the wage itself: as an employer you owe matching FICA, federal FUTA, and Utah state unemployment insurance (SUI) on top of salary. This calculator totals those employer-side taxes per employee and across your whole headcount so you can budget the true cost of a hire.

How it works

The employer payroll tax stack for Utah is:

FICA match. 6.2% Social Security on wages up to the annual wage base, plus 1.45% Medicare on all wages — matching what the employee pays.
FUTA. Federal unemployment tax: 6.0% on the first $7,000 of wages, reduced to an effective 0.6% (about $42/employee) when state unemployment is paid on time.
Utah SUI. Your assigned state rate (new employers around 1.4%) applied to the Utah taxable wage base (about $47,000).

Utah levies no state disability or paid-leave payroll tax, so there is nothing further to add.

Tips and example

For an employee earning $50,000 with a 1.4% SUI rate on a $47,000 base: FICA is 50,000 x 7.65% = $3,825; FUTA is $42; SUI is 47,000 x 1.4% = $658. The employer payroll tax total is about $4,525, on top of the $50,000 salary — roughly a 9% loading.

Enter your actual SUI rate and wage base from your Utah Workforce Services notice for precision, and remember benefits, workers’ comp, and overhead add further employer cost beyond these taxes.