California SDI Rate (2026)

What SDI costs at each salary

Because the rate is flat and uncapped, SDI scales in a straight line with your wages — there is no point where it stops, the way Social Security stops at its annual wage base. These are computed figures for a single filer paid biweekly with no pre-tax deductions:

Computed by the same engine that powers the California paycheck calculator, not rounded illustrations.

2026 vs. 2025: the rate went up

The SDI rate is reset by the EDD each year, and it rose from 1.2% to 1.3% effective January 1, 2026. On $100,000 of wages that is exactly $100 more withheld across the year. The maximum weekly benefit the fund pays out rose at the same time.

Source: EDD, SDI contribution rates and benefit amounts.

Why there's no longer a wage cap

SDI used to work like Social Security: a flat rate applied only up to an annual taxable wage ceiling, after which the deduction stopped for the rest of the year. Senate Bill 951 eliminated both the taxable wage ceiling and the maximum contribution effective January 1, 2024. Since then, SDI applies to every dollar of subject wages.

For most workers this changed nothing — their wages never reached the old ceiling anyway. For high earners it was a real increase: someone earning $400,000 now pays SDI on all of it, where previously the deduction stopped partway through the year. That is why a California paycheck calculator that still caps SDI will overstate take-home pay for higher salaries.

What the deduction actually buys

SDI is not a tax that disappears into the general fund — it funds two wage-replacement programs you can claim from. As the EDD puts it, the program "provides short-term Disability Insurance (DI) and Paid Family Leave (PFL) wage replacement benefits to eligible workers who need time off work."

• Disability Insurance — partial wage replacement when you can't work because of your own illness, injury, pregnancy, or childbirth.
• Paid Family Leave — partial wage replacement when you take time off to care for a seriously ill family member, bond with a new child, or handle a qualifying military deployment event.

Both come out of the same 1.3% deduction. Unlike New York, California does not withhold a separate PFL premium on top of SDI — one line covers both. In 2026 the maximum weekly benefit is $1,765.

Which wages SDI applies to

SDI is withheld on subject wages, which is close to but not identical to your gross pay:

• 401(k) contributions do not reduce it. Traditional 401(k) deferrals lower your income tax withholding but remain subject wages for SDI — so contributing more to your 401(k) won't shrink this line.
• Cafeteria-plan deductions do reduce it. Pre-tax health premiums, FSA, and HSA contributions taken through a Section 125 plan come out before SDI is figured.
• Bonuses and commissions are included. SDI applies to supplemental wages the same as to regular wages, at the same flat rate.

SDI vs. California PIT withholding

California takes two separate deductions from most paychecks, and they are easy to conflate:

The refundability difference is the one that matters most: over-withheld PIT comes back as a refund, while SDI is a premium for coverage you either use or don't. For how the PIT side is computed — the EDD's Method B tables, DE 4 allowances, and California's unusual HSA add-back — see the California paycheck guide.

Who doesn't pay SDI

Most California employees do, but not everyone. The main exception is an employer-run Voluntary Plan — a private disability plan an employer can set up "with mutual consent of the employer and a majority of the employees" in place of state SDI. The EDD's approval bar is high: a Voluntary Plan must "offer all the same benefits equal to SDI and at least one benefit that is better," and it cannot charge employees a contribution rate higher than the state rate. So if your employer runs one, expect a comparable deduction under a different name rather than a smaller one. Some public-sector and self-employed workers also fall outside mandatory coverage, and the self-employed can opt in through Disability Insurance Elective Coverage. Your pay stub is the reliable answer: if there's no CASDI line, you're not contributing.

Frequently asked questions

See it on your own paycheck

The California paycheck calculator breaks out SDI as its own line alongside federal tax, FICA, and California income tax, for your actual salary and pay frequency. Or jump to a pre-computed breakdown at $75,000 or $250,000 in California.