That's wrong. The marginal tax for even a $50,000/year earner in NYC is over 42%.
Source: http://arjun-menon.github.io/taxes-in-nyc/?income=50,000
It's kind of outrageous, marginal tax rates going down for high earners, but there we are.
But thanks for pointing out that I had the wrong zip code, so I missed NYC income tax, which is 3.65% marginal, bringing average tax rates at 200k to 36%, not 33% (albeit with zero deductions and exemptions, which obviously isn't reasonable, you'll deduct state income tax at the very least and shave off 1.4% immediately).
Your link is in error, it treats Social Security tax as continuing past $118k.
Actually, the tool does stop adding Social Security after the income limit: http://arjun-menon.github.io/taxes-in-nyc/?income=200,000
> you'll deduct state income tax at the very least
The tool also factors in state income tax deductions. You'll see it deducted in the link above
The tool reports the marginal tax rate for a $200,000 earner as ~36%.
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But yea, you're right, it sucks that $50k earners are taxed even more % than $200k earners. The employer pays payroll taxes of 7.65% (6.2% + 1.45%), so actual marginal taxes are ~50% from an employer cost perspective. It's truly insane.
Heck, your marginal tax rate isn't even 40%, and all those numbers are without taking a 401k tax deduction.
People get this crazy idea that $200k isn't rich in NYC or SF. It is very, very rich, even for the area. COL adjustment for rent and groceries shaves off $15-30k, but it doesn't keep scaling up from there.
[0] https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-tax-calculator