What is SDI on my paycheck? California’s 1.3% deduction explained

SDI on your paycheck is California State Disability Insurance, taken at 1.3% of all wages in 2026

SDI on a California paycheck is the employee contribution to State Disability Insurance, and in 2026 it is 1.3% of every dollar you earn. According to the California Employment Development Department (EDD), “the SDI withholding rate for 2026 is 1.3 percent”, and all wages have been subject to SDI since 1 January 2024.

Your employer takes SDI out of each paycheck and sends it to EDD. You pay it, not your employer. It sits on your pay stub next to federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and California income tax, and it often appears as “CA SDI”, “SDI” or “CASDI-E” depending on the payroll software.

The money funds two programmes: Disability Insurance (DI), which pays you when you cannot work because of your own illness, injury or pregnancy, and Paid Family Leave (PFL), which pays you while you bond with a new child or care for a seriously ill family member. SDI is not a federal tax and it is not unemployment insurance.

California removed the SDI wage cap on 1 January 2024, so high earners now pay 1.3% on everything

California SDI has had no wage limit since 1 January 2024, when Senate Bill 951 took effect. According to EDD’s refund form DE 1964, SB 951 “removed the taxable wage limit and maximum withholdings for each employee subject to SDI contributions”. Before 2024, you stopped paying SDI once your pay passed the yearly limit.

The change matters most above the old cap. On a $200,000 salary, 2026 SDI is $2,600 (1.3% of $200,000). In 2023 the same worker paid no more than $1,378.48.

The end of the cap also ended the SDI refund for people with two jobs. EDD’s DE 1964 says “excess SDI deductions may not be claimed for contributions made after tax year 2023”. If you hold two California jobs in 2026, each employer takes 1.3% and nothing is refunded, because there is no longer a maximum to exceed.

How much SDI you pay on $85,000 in California: $1,105 a year, or $42.50 a paycheck

A single California employee on $85,000 a year pays $1,105 of SDI in 2026, which is $42.50 from each of 26 bi-weekly paychecks. The figures below come from the site’s US paycheck calculator with these inputs: salary $85,000, filing status single, paid bi-weekly, state California, 0% 401(k), no dependants and no pre-tax health deductions.

The SDI line is simple arithmetic: $85,000 × 1.3% = $1,105, and $1,105 ÷ 26 = $42.50. Federal tax uses the 2026 standard deduction of $16,100 for a single filer from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. The California income tax line is an estimate: the calculator’s state data notes it uses 2025 inflation-adjusted bracket widths because 2026 figures were not yet published at its source date.

SDI grows in step with your pay. A $5,000 raise adds $65 a year of SDI (1.3% of $5,000), or $2.50 a paycheck. To see what a raise leaves you with after every deduction, use the pay rise calculator.

Twelve other states take disability or paid leave contributions from pay in 2026

Besides California, 12 states take an employee contribution for state disability insurance or paid family and medical leave from paychecks in 2026: New York, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota and Maine. Rates and caps differ widely, and some states cap the amount by the week rather than the year.

The table below uses the site’s own payroll data file, which records each rate from the state’s official website as checked on 27 September 2026. The last column is what the site’s calculator works out for $85,000 of wages. California, New York, New Jersey and Washington were re-checked on their official sites for this article on the same date.

The $184,500 cap used by several states is the 2026 Social Security wage base. The table shows the maximum employee share. In Delaware, Minnesota and Maine, smaller employers can pay a lower rate, and any employer may choose to pay part or all of the employee share for you.

Three details trip people up:

• New Jersey also takes unemployment contributions. According to the New Jersey Department of Labor, workers also pay 0.3825% for UI and 0.0425% for the Workforce and Supplemental Workforce funds on the first $44,800 of 2026 wages, which is $190.40 a year. That is not disability insurance, but it shows on the same pay stub.
• Washington’s two deductions have different caps. According to the WA Cares Fund, its 0.58% premium is not capped at the Social Security maximum, unlike Paid Leave. Workers with an approved exemption do not pay WA Cares.
• New York caps disability by the week. The Workers’ Compensation Board says the contribution is 0.5% of wages “but no more than 60 cents a week”, and with two jobs your combined contributions still cannot pass 60 cents a week.

Oregon workers also see a separate 0.1% statewide transit tax on their stub, which is not part of Paid Leave Oregon. Maryland’s FAMLI programme does not start payroll deductions until January 2027, so it is not in the table.

California SDI pays 70% to 90% of your wages, up to $1,765 a week in 2026

California Disability Insurance pays between $50 and $1,765 a week in 2026, worked out as 70% to 90% of your earlier wages. According to EDD, your weekly benefit is 70% to 90% of the wages you earned 5 to 18 months before your claim, depending on your income, up to the weekly maximum. Lower earners get the higher percentage.

If you earned $85,000 evenly, your highest quarter was $21,250, which puts you in the 70% band. You need at least $300 of wages in the base period to have a valid claim.

The two programmes pay for different things:

• Disability Insurance covers your own non-work illness, injury or pregnancy. EDD says the most you can receive is 52 weeks. You must be unable to do your regular work for at least eight days, and you file no earlier than nine days and no later than 49 days after the disability begins.
• Paid Family Leave pays up to 8 weeks in a 12-month period to bond with a new child (including adoption and foster placement), care for a seriously ill family member, or help with a family member’s military deployment abroad. The weekly range is the same $50 to $1,765.

Other states pay on their own formulas. New York Paid Family Leave, for example, pays up to $1,228.53 a week in 2026, which the state says is 67% of the New York State Average Weekly Wage.

SDI has no cap, but Social Security stops at $184,500

California SDI and federal FICA both come out of every paycheck, but only Social Security has a wage cap in 2026. According to the IRS, Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 for 2026, Medicare is 1.45% of all wages, and employers withhold an extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages over $200,000 in a calendar year. SDI is 1.3% of all wages with no limit.

Between $184,500 and $250,000, Social Security stays at $11,439 while SDI keeps rising by $13 for every extra $1,000. The Medicare figure at $250,000 is $3,625 at 1.45% plus $450 of Additional Medicare Tax on the $50,000 above $200,000.

To check your own figures, enter your salary, pay frequency and state in the US paycheck calculator. It lists SDI and each other state deduction on a separate line, so you can match it against your pay stub.