Hampton Township to Pittsburgh

Everyday commuter cars and a bus crossing a steel river bridge beside an American city.

Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · ALLEGHENY to ALLEGHENY County · tax year 2026

Home rate

1%

Hampton Township, residents

Work rate

1%

Pittsburgh, non-residents

You pay

1%

the higher of the two

Cost of the commute

$0

a year, above the home rate

What this commute costs you

no extra local tax
$
Local tax total
$600
one rate, not two, for the year
Because of the commute
$0
above working in Hampton Township
Slack before it costs
$0
Pittsburgh could take this much more first

The two rates are identical, so the test is a wash — but this pair sits exactly at the line, and any rise in Pittsburgh's commuter rate would start costing you. You pay the solid bar only — Pennsylvania charges the higher of the two rates, never their sum. Local earned income tax only; state, federal and payroll tax apply on top.

What this commute actually costs

  • Good news for this commute. Working in Pittsburgh costs you nothing extra. Hampton Township charges residents about 1%, at least as much as Pittsburgh asks of people who work there but live elsewhere. The higher rate wins, so your home rate is simply the rate. That is $600 a year, wherever you work.
  • This route is one of 85 into Pittsburgh tracked here, ranking 55 by how many people travel it. Around 1,022 make the trip. Seen from the other end, Pittsburgh is Hampton Township's number 1 destination of 1.
  • For the Hampton Township to Pittsburgh commute the residence governs. Hampton Township's resident rate of about 1% equals or exceeds Pittsburgh's non-resident rate, so Pennsylvania's greater-of test resolves to the resident rate and the effective burden is about 1%, or $600 at the reference salary. The workplace adds nothing; the entire amount is remitted to the residence. This is the majority outcome and the one most commuters need confirmed.
  • Of 85 recorded inflows to Pittsburgh, this route ranks 55 by worker count, carrying 1,022 commuters from Hampton Township. Viewed from the origin it is that municipality's 1 destination of 1 recorded — neither the largest catchment nor a marginal one.

Where the money goes

A $75,000 salary

  • Federal income tax$7,670
  • Social Security and Medicare$5,738
  • State income tax$2,303
  • Yours$59,290
Federal income tax10.23%$7,670
Social Security and Medicare7.65%$5,738
State income tax3.07%$2,303
Yours79.05%$59,290

The arithmetic, side by side

Hampton Township to Pittsburgh rate comparison
If you worked in Hampton Township$600
Working in Pittsburgh$600
Difference$0

On a reference salary of $60,000 a year. The local tax is flat, so every figure scales with your own pay.

What this page does not cover

  • To be explicit, since the arrangement invites confusion. The rates for Hampton Township and Pittsburgh are not stacked. Pennsylvania takes the larger one. What is collected then gets divided between the two municipalities. That division does not change what comes out of your pay.
  • Only one tax is on this page. It is the local earned income tax that Hampton Township and Pittsburgh levy. State tax, federal tax and Social Security all still apply. All three are the same wherever in Pennsylvania you work.
  • Sixty thousand a year is a benchmark. It is not a guess at what people in Hampton Township earn. No published wage figure exists for single municipalities. The rate is the durable part of this page. The dollars scale straight up and down with whatever you earn in Pittsburgh.
  • Two practical cautions. Postal addresses and taxing boundaries do not always agree. Your post may say Hampton Township while your taxing municipality is a different one. Pennsylvania publishes an official lookup to settle it. The same caution applies at the Pittsburgh end. Philadelphia is a special case too, with its own wage tax.
  • The two rates applicable to a Hampton Township–Pittsburgh commute are alternatives, not addends. The statute fixes the employee's liability at the greater of them and then apportions the proceeds, with the residence receiving up to its own rate and the excess passing to the work location. The apportionment is fiscally significant to the municipalities and immaterial to the worker.
  • The scope here is the municipal earned income tax alone. State, federal and payroll taxes are unaffected by the choice between Hampton Township and Pittsburgh and are therefore outside the model. A total tax position requires adding them; a comparison of the two locations does not.
  • The reference salary is a stated benchmark, not an estimate of Hampton Township earnings, for which no municipal-level published source exists. The local earned income tax is proportional, so all dollar figures for the Pittsburgh commute scale linearly with income and the rate comparison holds at every salary.
  • Two caveats bear on accuracy. First, postal addresses and municipal taxing boundaries diverge frequently in Pennsylvania, so a Hampton Township address should be confirmed against the DCED municipal lookup before relying on the Hampton Township rate. Second, Philadelphia administers its wage tax outside this framework, with its own resident and non-resident rates and its own credit arrangements, so any pairing touching it should be checked against the city's own schedule.

Questions people ask

Do I pay local tax twice — once where I work and once where I live?

No — you pay the higher of the two rates and never the sum. Hampton Township levies about 1% on residents and Pittsburgh levies about 1% on people who work there; whichever is larger is what you owe, and your employer withholds it.

Does working in a different town cost me anything?

On this route, nothing. You owe exactly what you would have owed working at home — the boundary is real on a map and invisible on your pay stub, which is not true of every pair of towns here.

Which town's rate am I actually paying?

Hampton Township sets it. Your residence rate is the larger, so it governs regardless of where the job is.

Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?

Yes — 1,022 people make this exact journey, according to the federal employment survey that tracks where workers live against where they work. Routes below a volume floor are not published, so a page existing here means the commute is real and measured.

Both towns charge the same — does the boundary matter at all then?

Not to your total. Hampton Township and Pittsburgh both levy about 1%, so the amount is settled either way — what the boundary decides is which authority receives it, and that is an accounting question rather than a cost to you.

How does Pennsylvania's local earned income tax law allocate liability between two districts?

Pennsylvania's local earned income tax law assigns the higher of the residence rate (about 1%) and the non-resident work rate (about 1%); liabilities are never summed. The employer withholds at the governing rate and remits through the work district's collector, which then distributes to the residence district.

Why is the marginal cost of this crossing zero?

Marginal liability from working outside the residence jurisdiction is zero on this route. The crossing alters the distribution of revenue between jurisdictions but not the employee's total. ⚠️ This is route-specific and does not generalise to other pairs in the same dataset.

Which district's rate governs on this route?

The residence rate equals or exceeds the work district's non-resident rate and therefore governs. Working outside the residence district does not increase employee liability on this route; it affects only inter-district distribution.

What is the basis for including this route?

Route volume is 1,022 workers, sourced from Census LODES origin-destination data. Pairs below the publication threshold are excluded rather than imputed, so page existence reflects measured commuting volume.

What is the effect of identical rates either side of the boundary?

Both jurisdictions levy about 1%, so the governing rate is identical regardless of which rule allocates it. The boundary affects revenue attribution between authorities, not employee liability.