McKean Township to Erie
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · ERIE to ERIE County · tax year 2026
Home rate
1%
McKean Township, residents
Work rate
1.65%
Erie, non-residents
You pay
1.65%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$390
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
workplace governsErie charges commuters more than McKean Township charges its own residents, so the work rate wins the greater-of test and the difference is real money. 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
- Commuting from McKean Township into Erie raises your local tax. Home rate: about 1%. Work rate for non-residents: about 1.65%. You pay the higher. That works out at $990 a year, or $390 more than earning the same at home.
- Roughly 705 people commute from McKean Township to Erie, which makes this route number 8 out of 10 tracked into that workplace. A normal-sized flow rather than a dominant one.
- Erie's non-resident rate of about 1.65% exceeds McKean Township's resident rate of about 1%, so the effective rate for this commute is about 1.65% — $990 at the reference salary, an increment of $390 over the home-only position. The state consolidated collection but did not equalise rates, which is why the workplace remains capable of raising the bill.
- This flow carries 705 workers, ranking 8 among 10 recorded routes into Erie and 1 of 1 destinations recorded for McKean Township. The rate outcome above therefore applies to a meaningful but not dominant share of that workplace's inbound commuters.
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
| If you worked in McKean Township | $600 |
|---|---|
| Working in Erie | $990 |
| Difference | $390 |
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
- One thing worth being clear about, because it catches people out. You are not charged by both places. McKean Township and Erie do not add their rates together. Pennsylvania picks the higher of the two, and that is what you pay. Adding them would roughly double the bill.
- Only one tax is on this page. It is the local earned income tax that McKean Township and Erie 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 McKean 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 Erie.
- A postal address in McKean Township does not prove which municipality taxes you. Boundaries and postcodes disagree often enough here that the state publishes a lookup. Philadelphia is a special case too. Its wage tax sits outside the rules that govern Erie.
- Pennsylvania's local rule is a greater-of rule, not an additive one: the liability for a McKean Township resident working in Erie is the higher of the two applicable rates, not their sum. The distinction is worth stating plainly because the additive reading is intuitive and would overstate the charge by roughly a factor of two. What is divided between the municipalities is the remittance, not the worker's liability.
- The scope here is the municipal earned income tax alone. State, federal and payroll taxes are unaffected by the choice between McKean Township and Erie 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 McKean Township earnings, for which no municipal-level published source exists. The local earned income tax is proportional, so all dollar figures for the Erie commute scale linearly with income and the rate comparison holds at every salary.
- Municipal taxing jurisdiction is determined by boundary rather than by postal address, and the two diverge frequently enough in Pennsylvania that the DCED lookup should be treated as authoritative for McKean Township. Philadelphia is additionally outside this regime, administering its own wage tax on residents and non-residents under separate authority, so it does not follow the treatment described for Erie.
Questions people ask
Do I pay local tax twice — once where I work and once where I live?
Only once, at the higher rate. Between McKean Township's about 1% and Erie's about 1.65%, the larger governs — the two are never added together.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
About $390 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in McKean Township, and it exists purely because the boundary sits between them.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
Erie's, because it is the higher of the two. Where you work sets the rate on this route, and your home town receives its share out of what is collected rather than charging you separately.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
705 people travel it. Volume decides whether a route gets published at all, never what the tax on it is.
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 1.65%); 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.
What is the marginal local tax cost of this commute?
Marginal annual liability attributable to working outside the residence jurisdiction is $390 at the reference salary. This is a tax cost rather than a commuting expense and is not deductible as one. It scales with income and with the rate differential, not with distance traveled.
Which district's rate governs on this route?
The work district's non-resident rate exceeds the residence rate and therefore governs. Withholding occurs at that rate, and distribution between the two districts happens after collection without further employee liability.
What is the measurement basis for a route of this size?
Route volume is 705 workers per Census LODES, above the publication floor but below the dataset's upper quartile. Liability is determined by jurisdictional rates and residence rules alone; commuter volume has no bearing on it and is reported only as context.