How does Wyoming state income tax and unemployment insurance work in 2026?
Wyoming has no state income tax and no state payroll tax. What employers fund instead is unemployment insurance on a $33,800 wage base at an industry-set new-employer rate from 2.28%, plus the federal stack.
· Wyoming, United States guide
Illustration · Cheyenne, Wyoming
Wyoming is the state that looks free on a relocation slide and reads almost as simply on a payroll register. There is no state income tax and no withholding form, because the Wyoming constitution bars a personal income tax. There is also no state payroll tax. That part is genuinely simple.
The employer cost sits in one state box and the federal stack. Unemployment insurance runs on a $33,800 wage base at a new-employer rate Wyoming sets by your industry, from 2.28% up to 9.78%. On top sits Social Security, Medicare and FUTA, the same in every state. See how Wyoming compares under employer of record.
Does Wyoming have a state income tax in 2026?
No. Wyoming is one of nine US states with no personal state income tax, and the state constitution bars one, so there is zero state income tax withholding on your Wyoming payroll in 2026. There is no Wyoming equivalent of a federal W-4 for the state and no state bracket table.
That does not mean no employer cost. Wyoming funds its government largely through mineral, sales and property taxes, so on payroll your only state line item is unemployment insurance. The federal stack still applies in full. Compare the picture across the border in Colorado state tax and UI.
For your hire, no state income tax is real take-home: a Cheyenne employee keeps more of the same gross salary than the equivalent hire in California or New York. For you, the withholding side of payroll is among the easiest in the country, because there is nothing to withhold for the state and no state reconciliation return to file.
Wyoming locks this in at the constitutional level. Article 15 of the state constitution restricts how income may be taxed, and lifting the bar would take a supermajority of the legislature followed by a public vote, so the no-income-tax position is unusually durable. The one trap is assuming "no income tax" means "no Wyoming payroll obligation". You still register with the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services for unemployment insurance, and you still run the full federal stack. The cost did not disappear; there is just less of it than in a high-tax state. See how Wyoming payroll fits the broader United States hiring guide.
Does Wyoming have a state payroll tax, and what do employers pay instead?
No. Wyoming has no state payroll tax and no state disability levy. The only state-level employer cost on payroll is unemployment insurance, paid to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services on the first $33,800 of each employee's wages.
So the Wyoming employer story is short: one state contribution, unemployment insurance, then the federal stack of Social Security at 6.2%, Medicare at 1.45%, and FUTA.
This is what keeps Wyoming cheap to run. States like Nevada bolt on a Modified Business Tax, and California adds disability and employment-training levies. Wyoming adds nothing of the kind. Your state payroll obligation begins and ends with unemployment insurance.
Register with the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services once you become liable, then report wages and pay unemployment insurance each quarter. There is no monthly state withholding deposit, because there is nothing to withhold. The work is the federal stack plus one quarterly unemployment return. That is why Wyoming payroll runs lighter than almost anywhere else in the country, and why the running cost of a Wyoming hire stays low even compared with zero-income-tax neighbours like South Dakota. If you are also weighing leave obligations, see Wyoming's paid family and sick leave page.
What is Wyoming's unemployment insurance wage base and rate for 2026?
Wyoming's UI taxable wage base is $33,800 per employee for 2026, up from $32,400 in 2025, because Wyoming adjusts it for inflation each year. New employers do not get one flat rate; Wyoming assigns a rate by your industry, from 2.28% up to 9.78%.
Experience-rated employers fall on a rate set by their own claims history, from a 2026 minimum of 0.09% to a maximum of 8.50%. Your exact rate depends on your industry and, later, your record. Use the employer cost calculator to model your full Wyoming cost before you hire.
Hire in Wyoming and you pay UI on the first $33,800 of each employee's wages. Your industry sets the opening rate, from 2.28% to 9.78% for new employers; experience-rated employers land between 0.09% and 8.50%. Reported and paid quarterly.
Source: Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, Unemployment Tax Rates
Wyoming is unusual here. Most states give every new employer a single entry rate; Wyoming instead assigns a base rate built on your industry, then adds factors, so a low-risk office employer opens near 2.28% while a high-turnover industry can start much higher. You pay UI on the first $33,800 of each employee's wages; everything above that in the calendar year is not taxed. Compare this structure with how Montana handles UI next door.
After about three years you move onto an experience rating built from your own claims history, between 0.09% and 8.50%. The federal layer sits on top: FUTA is 6.0 percent on the first $7,000 of wages, less the full credit for compliant state payers, leaving an effective 0.6%.
What other payroll rules apply to Wyoming employees?
You run the full federal stack: Social Security at 6.2% to $184,500, Medicare at 1.45%, and FUTA at an effective 0.6%. Wyoming's own statute sets a $5.15 minimum wage, but the federal $7.25 an hour applies in practice, with a $2.13 tipped cash minimum.
Wyoming mandates no state paid leave. There is no state paid-family-leave programme and no state paid sick leave, so federal FMLA at 50 employees is the only job-protected family leave layer. See the full picture on Wyoming's paid family and sick leave page.
The minimum wage is the point that catches out-of-state employers. Wyoming's statute still reads $5.15 an hour, a figure left over from an older era, but it sits below the federal floor, so any employer covered by federal wage law (which is nearly all of them) must pay $7.25. In practice you pay $7.25, not $5.15. Tipped staff can be paid a $2.13 cash wage as long as tips bring them to $7.25. For overtime rules on top of the wage floor, see Wyoming's wage, overtime and meal break law.
On leave, Wyoming has no state mandate at all, so any paid time off you offer is a benefit you choose, not a statute you follow. That makes federal FMLA the whole of the job-protected family-leave picture: up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for employers with 50 or more staff within 75 miles. Social Security runs at 6.2% each side to $184,500, Medicare at 1.45% on all wages, and a 0.9 percent additional Medicare applies to employee wages over $200,000.
How Teamed runs Wyoming payroll end to end
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Wyoming for $599 per employee per month flat. Zero FX mark-up. Statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
You hire the person. Teamed registers with the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, files and pays unemployment insurance each quarter, and runs the full federal stack. Everything runs on one platform.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Wyoming hires and know the $33,800 UI wage base, the industry-set new-employer rate, and the quarterly cadence. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue. You see every cost: unemployment insurance and federal employer taxes pass through at cost, itemised and auditable on every invoice. No setup fee, no exit fee.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll, and entity graduation all live on one platform: a Wyoming contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate to your own US entity without switching systems. Because Wyoming has no income tax, no state payroll tax, and a single quarterly unemployment return, the running cost of a Wyoming hire is low, so the case for your own entity arrives later per headcount than in a high-tax state. Use the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips, or model your employer cost today. EOR is the right model for Wyoming, until it isn't.
The thing people miss on Wyoming is that the new-employer unemployment rate is not one number. The state sets it by your industry, so two companies hiring the same week can open on very different rates. We model the rate for your industry before you commit, so the first invoice holds no surprises. No income tax, light payroll, one quarterly return.
Wyoming has no state income tax and no state payroll tax. The constitution locks that in.
Your only state line is unemployment insurance: an industry-set rate from 2.28% on a $33,800 base, then the federal stack.
One of the lightest payrolls in the country. We run it for you.
