State guides

Federal employer taxes are the same everywhere. State unemployment insurance, workers compensation and statutory leave programs are not, and together they can swing the cost of the same hire by more than a thousand dollars a year. These guides set out the 2026 figures for ten of the largest hiring states, with an honest range rather than a single number.

State	New employer unemployment rate	Taxable wage base
California	3.4 percent for new employers	7,000 dollars per employee per year
Texas	2.7 percent for new employers, or the industry average if that is higher	9,000 dollars per employee per year
New York	about 4.1 percent for new employers, including the reemployment fund	about 13,000 dollars per employee per year, indexed annually
Florida	2.7 percent for new employers	7,000 dollars per employee per year
Washington	varies by industry for new employers, commonly in the 1 to 3 percent range	78,200 dollars per employee per year
Illinois	3.35 percent for most new employers	14,250 dollars per employee per year
Pennsylvania	3.822 percent for new employers	10,000 dollars per employee per year
Ohio	2.85 percent for new employers	about 9,000 to 9,500 dollars per employee per year
Georgia	2.7 percent for new employers	9,500 dollars per employee per year
North Carolina	1.0 percent for new employers	34,200 dollars per employee per year

Cost of hiring an employee in California

California pairs one of the smallest unemployment wage bases in the country with one of the largest federal unemployment bills, which surprises employers who only read the headline rate.

Read the California guide

Cost of hiring an employee in Texas

Texas is a low friction state for payroll tax, but the new employer unemployment rate is not a flat number for everyone and workers compensation is optional in a way it is not anywhere else.

Read the Texas guide

Cost of hiring an employee in New York

New York has the highest new employer unemployment rate in this cluster and a set of small statutory insurance lines that employers elsewhere never think about.

Read the New York guide

Cost of hiring an employee in Florida

Florida runs one of the lightest statutory employer loads in the country, which makes benefits and workers compensation the entire story.

Read the Florida guide

Cost of hiring an employee in Washington

Washington has the highest unemployment wage base of these ten states by a wide margin, and it charges workers compensation by the hour rather than as a share of payroll.

Read the Washington guide

Cost of hiring an employee in Illinois

Illinois sits in the middle of the pack on rate but above it on wage base, so the state unemployment bill is a few hundred dollars higher per head than the southern states.

Read the Illinois guide

Cost of hiring an employee in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is the one state in this cluster where employees also pay an unemployment contribution, and where local wage taxes add a layer of administration.

Read the Pennsylvania guide

Cost of hiring an employee in Ohio

Ohio is a moderate cost state on payroll tax with one structural difference: workers compensation runs through a state fund rather than a private market.

Read the Ohio guide

Cost of hiring an employee in Georgia

Georgia keeps employer statutory cost low and predictable, with one small extra assessment that appears and disappears from the schedule depending on the year.

Read the Georgia guide

Cost of hiring an employee in North Carolina

North Carolina has the lowest new employer unemployment rate in this cluster and one of the highest wage bases, which is a combination worth understanding before you assume it is the cheapest option.

Read the North Carolina guide