The good folks at Right Change have put together this chart of how much more each income level will pay under the new Social Security taxes.
(My only quibble would be that it’s not really the “fiscal cliff deal” that raised the taxes; it is the expiration of a two-year cut in the payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. There was little enthusiasm from either party about extending that tax cut for another year. Having said that, it is fair to say that the “fiscal cliff deal” didn’t do anything to address this scheduled tax hike.)
As seen on Twitter and elsewhere, today millions of Americans are opening their pay envelopes and seeing smaller paychecks. (This is because the tax rates apply for the date the check is written, even if some of the work period was in the previous year.)
Take the sum in the above chart and divide by 26 if your pay period is biweekly; divide by 52 if your pay period is weekly. So someone making $50,000 who is paid biweekly is this morning opening up an envelope and looking at a paycheck that is $38.46 smaller than it was two weeks ago.