Unity Township to Greensburg
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · WESTMORELAND to WESTMORELAND County · tax year 2026
Home rate
1%
Unity Township, residents
Work rate
0%
Greensburg, 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 taxUnity Township already charges its residents more than Greensburg charges commuters, so the home rate governs and the job adds nothing at all. 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
- Nothing changes for this commute. A resident of Unity Township pays about 1% either way. It makes no difference whether they work at home or travel to Greensburg. The home rate is the higher of the two, and the higher one wins. That is $600 a year.
- Few other routes into Greensburg appear in this data, so there is little to compare at that end. The other direction has plenty. Unity Township sends workers to 3 places, and this is number 2 by size.
- The Unity Township to Greensburg commute is tax-neutral. Unity Township's resident rate of about 1% is not exceeded by Greensburg's non-resident rate, so under the state's rule the resident rate applies and the effective figure is about 1% — $600 annually at the reference salary. Withholding is remitted to the residence in full and the work location receives no share.
- Greensburg draws few recorded inflows, so cross-origin comparison is thin at the destination end. The origin is better covered: Unity Township appears as the home municipality for 3 tracked destinations, of which this ranks 2 by worker count.
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 Unity Township | $600 |
|---|---|
| Working in Greensburg | $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
- A common worry, answered. You do not pay Unity Township and Greensburg both. Only one rate applies, the higher of the two. The two councils then sort out between themselves who gets what, and your bill is unaffected.
- Only one tax is on this page. It is the local earned income tax that Unity Township and Greensburg levy. State tax, federal tax and Social Security all still apply. All three are the same wherever in Pennsylvania you work.
- All the dollar amounts rest on one assumed salary. It is stated rather than measured, because nobody publishes average pay for Unity Township. The local tax is a flat percentage. Scale every figure to your own salary and the Greensburg conclusion holds.
- Two practical cautions. Postal addresses and taxing boundaries do not always agree. Your post may say Unity Township while your taxing municipality is a different one. Pennsylvania publishes an official lookup to settle it. The same caution applies at the Greensburg end. Philadelphia is a special case too, with its own wage tax.
- Workers commuting from Unity Township to Greensburg are subject to one rate, not two. The statute directs the employer to withhold the greater of the resident and non-resident rates; the allocation between the two taxing bodies is a remittance mechanic invisible to the employee. Treating the two rates as cumulative is the most common misreading of the statute.
- The scope here is the municipal earned income tax alone. State, federal and payroll taxes are unaffected by the choice between Unity Township and Greensburg and are therefore outside the model. A total tax position requires adding them; a comparison of the two locations does not.
- Monetary figures derive from a single stated salary assumption; no published wage series covers Pennsylvania municipalities such as Unity Township. The flat structure of the local tax means the Greensburg comparison is scale-invariant, so the rate difference rather than the dollar difference is the transferable result.
- Two caveats bear on accuracy. First, postal addresses and municipal taxing boundaries diverge frequently in Pennsylvania, so a Unity Township address should be confirmed against the DCED municipal lookup before relying on the Unity 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?
The rates compete rather than stack. about 1% where you live, about 0% where you work, and you pay the greater of the two.
Does working in a different town cost me anything?
Nothing extra. The tax is redirected rather than increased, so this particular crossing costs you no more than working in Unity Township would.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
The one where you live. Unity Township levies at least as much as Greensburg, so its rate applies and the crossing costs you nothing extra.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
It is a smaller route: 605 workers. That affects how representative it is, not whether the tax arithmetic applies — the rules are the same on a quiet road as a busy one.
The town I work in charges nothing — does that help me?
Working somewhere untaxed leaves the residence claim untouched: Unity Township still levies about 1% on 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 0%); 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 measurement basis for a route of this size?
Route volume is 605 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.
What is the effect of a zero work-district rate?
A zero work-district rate eliminates the source-based claim but leaves residence-based liability intact at about 1%. Residence liability is unaffected by where earnings are sourced.