Wilkes-Barre to Pittston Township
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · LUZERNE to LUZERNE County · tax year 2026
Home rate
3%
Wilkes-Barre, residents
Work rate
1%
Pittston Township, non-residents
You pay
3%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$0
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
no extra local taxWilkes-Barre already charges its residents more than Pittston Township 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
- Good news for this commute. Working in Pittston Township costs you nothing extra. Wilkes-Barre charges residents about 3%, at least as much as Pittston Township asks of people who work there but live elsewhere. The higher rate wins, so your home rate is simply the rate. That is $1,800 a year, wherever you work.
- Few other routes into Pittston Township appear in this data, so there is little to compare at that end. The other direction has plenty. Wilkes-Barre sends workers to 5 places, and this is number 3 by size.
- For the Wilkes-Barre to Pittston Township commute the residence governs. Wilkes-Barre's resident rate of about 3% equals or exceeds Pittston Township's non-resident rate, so Pennsylvania's greater-of test resolves to the resident rate and the effective burden is about 3%, or $1,800 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.
- Pittston Township draws few recorded inflows, so cross-origin comparison is thin at the destination end. The origin is better covered: Wilkes-Barre appears as the home municipality for 5 tracked destinations, of which this ranks 3 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 Wilkes-Barre | $1,800 |
|---|---|
| Working in Pittston Township | $1,800 |
| 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
- One thing worth being clear about, because it catches people out. You are not charged by both places. Wilkes-Barre and Pittston Township 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 Wilkes-Barre and Pittston Township 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 Wilkes-Barre 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 Pittston Township.
- Two practical cautions. Postal addresses and taxing boundaries do not always agree. Your post may say Wilkes-Barre while your taxing municipality is a different one. Pennsylvania publishes an official lookup to settle it. The same caution applies at the Pittston Township end. Philadelphia is a special case too, with its own wage tax.
- Pennsylvania's local rule is a greater-of rule, not an additive one: the liability for a Wilkes-Barre resident working in Pittston Township 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 Wilkes-Barre and Pittston Township 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 Wilkes-Barre earnings, for which no municipal-level published source exists. The local earned income tax is proportional, so all dollar figures for the Pittston Township 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 Wilkes-Barre address should be confirmed against the DCED municipal lookup before relying on the Wilkes-Barre 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?
Only once, at the higher rate. Between Wilkes-Barre's about 3% and Pittston Township's about 1%, the larger governs — the two are never added together.
Does working in a different town cost me anything?
Not a cent on this one. The crossing changes where the money is sent, not how much of it leaves, so your total matches a stay-at-home commute.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
The one where you live. Wilkes-Barre levies at least as much as Pittston Township, so its rate applies and the crossing costs you nothing extra.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
577 workers make this journey — enough to be published, but not a major corridor. The tax rules do not depend on how many people travel a route, so the figures hold regardless; the count only tells you how typical this pairing 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 3%) 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 measurement basis for a route of this size?
Route volume is 577 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.