Wilkes-Barre to Scranton
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · LUZERNE to LACKAWANNA County · tax year 2026
Home rate
3%
Wilkes-Barre, residents
Work rate
1%
Scranton, 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 Scranton 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 Wilkes-Barre pays about 3% either way. It makes no difference whether they work at home or travel to Scranton. The home rate is the higher of the two, and the higher one wins. That is $1,800 a year.
- This is the dearest way into Scranton. Out of 10 routes tracked here, Wilkes-Barre has the highest local rate. Same office, same salary, and you pay more local tax than colleagues who travel in from anywhere else on this list.
- The Wilkes-Barre to Scranton commute is tax-neutral. Wilkes-Barre's resident rate of about 3% is not exceeded by Scranton's non-resident rate, so under the state's rule the resident rate applies and the effective figure is about 3% — $1,800 annually at the reference salary. Withholding is remitted to the residence in full and the work location receives no share.
- Of 10 routes into Scranton in this dataset, Wilkes-Barre produces the highest effective rate. Because the local tax attaches to residence and workplace rather than to the employer, colleagues at one workplace routinely carry materially different local burdens, and this residence is at the top of that range.
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 Scranton | $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
- A common worry, answered. You do not pay Wilkes-Barre and Scranton 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 Wilkes-Barre and Scranton levy. State tax, federal tax and Social Security all still apply. All three are the same wherever in Pennsylvania you work.
- The dollar figures use a flat reference salary of sixty thousand a year. That is a benchmark, not an average for Wilkes-Barre. No wage data exists for single municipalities, and inventing one would be worse. Scale the numbers to your own pay. The rate for the Scranton commute is what matters, and it does not change with income.
- 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 Scranton end. Philadelphia is a special case too, with its own wage tax.
- Workers commuting from Wilkes-Barre to Scranton 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 Wilkes-Barre and Scranton and are therefore outside the model. A total tax position requires adding them; a comparison of the two locations does not.
- Dollar amounts are computed against a stated reference salary rather than a municipal wage average, which does not exist for Pennsylvania municipalities in any published source. Because the local tax is flat, the rate is invariant to income and the figures scale linearly — the Wilkes-Barre to Scranton differential doubles at twice the salary and halves at half of it.
- 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?
The rates compete rather than stack. about 3% where you live, about 1% where you work, and you pay the greater of the two.
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?
Wilkes-Barre sets it. Your residence rate is the larger, so it governs regardless of where the job is.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
It is a smaller route: 509 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.
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 509 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.