Unemployment rate, taxable wage base, minimum wage and withholding
Federal payroll rules are identical everywhere; the money differs by state. What Massachusetts assigns a new Revere employer, what wage base it applies, and what its minimum wage requires are below with state sources.
Two free marketplace paths: one form brings back multiple vetted payroll providers who know they are competing for the account.
Massachusetts assigns new employers a state unemployment tax rate of 2.42% (registered less than 3 years) on wages up to a taxable base of $15,000 per employee per year, which is the state-set portion of every Revere payroll and moves with claims experience over time.
Massachusetts sets its minimum wage at $15.00, the floor every Revere hourly rate has to clear before overtime, tip credits and local ordinances are applied on top.
Employers in Revere's county pay about $119,182 a year per employee on average across 720,353 covered jobs (Census County Business Patterns 2023) - the wage base every unemployment rate and withholding schedule is applied to locally.
Federal payroll rules are identical in every state; the expensive differences are local. Massachusetts assigns a state unemployment tax rate and a taxable wage base, sets a minimum wage that may sit above the federal floor, and runs its own withholding registration and deposit schedule. Any Revere payroll quote that does not account for those is a quote for a different business.
Two Revere businesses with identical payrolls can owe materially different amounts because of Massachusetts's unemployment tax alone: new employers are assigned a starting rate, experience moves it within a statutory band, and the taxable wage base decides how much of each salary the rate applies to. Both figures are published by the state and shown below with sources.
Put a state payroll setup review out to competing quotes before you compare prices
Two free marketplace paths: one form brings back multiple vetted payroll providers who know they are competing for the account. Competing quotes are the only reliable way to see what your headcount actually prices at.
External links go to the marketplaces' own sites and forms. This site may earn a referral fee at no cost to you - it never changes the data above, and no individual payroll provider pays to appear in our research.
What Massachusetts adds to every payroll
| Question | Massachusetts answer |
|---|---|
| State unemployment tax - new employer rate | 2.42% (registered less than 3 years) (range UI only (Schedule E): 0.94% - 14.37%) |
| Taxable wage base per employee | $15,000 - Primary: mass.gov DUA publishes 2026 contribution rates (new employer 2.42%, new construction 6.08%) and the 2026 UI & COVID-19 Recovery Assessment Rate Schedule (Schedule E), which pairs each UI |
| State minimum wage | $15.00 - Verified still $15.00/hr in August 2026 - the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards page states the rate has been $15.00 since January 1, 2023, the final step of the 2018 'Grand Bargain' |
| State income tax withholding | flat 5% on most income, plus a 4% surtax on annual income above roughly $1M (the "millionaires tax"), so an effective 9% top rate |
The headline UI rate badly understates the cost: a Massachusetts employer stacks UI + COVID-19 Recovery Assessment (up to 2.72 points on top) + EMAC (up to 0.34%) + Workforce Training Fund, and PFML on top of that.
This page is independent research, not legal, tax or accounting advice. Federal deposit rules and state wage, unemployment and final-paycheck laws change - verify current requirements with the IRS and your state labor and revenue agencies, or with a licensed CPA or attorney, before acting.
Why two identical Revere payrolls owe different amounts
Unemployment tax is charged as a rate against a capped amount of each employee's wages, and both halves of that formula are state decisions. A new Revere employer is assigned a starting rate; once there is claims history the rate moves within the state's statutory band. The wage base decides how much of a salary the rate touches - which is why a state with a high base and a low rate can cost more than the reverse. Neither number is negotiable, but both are worth knowing before comparing payroll quotes that quietly assume one state.
What this means in Revere
A late deposit costs 2% to 15% of the deposit; a full year of payroll processing for a small Revere employer costs less than one such penalty on a modest payroll. Price the service second and the failure mode first.
This page is independent research, not legal, tax or accounting advice. Federal deposit rules and state wage, unemployment and final-paycheck laws change - verify current requirements with the IRS and your state labor and revenue agencies, or with a licensed CPA or attorney, before acting.
Put a state payroll setup review out to competing quotes before you compare prices
Two free marketplace paths: one form brings back multiple vetted payroll providers who know they are competing for the account. Competing quotes are the only reliable way to see what your headcount actually prices at.
External links go to the marketplaces' own sites and forms. This site may earn a referral fee at no cost to you - it never changes the data above, and no individual payroll provider pays to appear in our research.
Common questions
How much does payroll cost per employee per month?
Per-employee fees cluster at $4-$15 dollars per month on top of the base fee for standard payroll software and services. Fully outsourced processing and PEO-style arrangements are quoted differently - commonly $30-$100 dollars per person per month or a percentage of gross payroll - and bundle benefits administration and compliance work that standard payroll does not include.
Is it worth switching payroll providers?
Switching costs are lower than most owners assume - the practical constraints are having complete year-to-date wage data, timing the move at a quarter boundary where possible, and confirming the new provider registers you in every state. The savings case is rarely the base fee; it is usually the elimination of per-state, per-form and off-cycle charges that accumulated with a legacy plan.
Can I do payroll myself instead?
Yes, and for a single-state business with a handful of salaried employees, software plus discipline is genuinely cheaper. The variables that change the answer are multi-state employees, hourly overtime, tipped wages, garnishments and turnover - each multiplies the number of deadlines. For scale, an in-house payroll specialist averages about $64,865 dollars a year in 2026 wage data, so the real comparison for most small employers is software plus your own hours versus a service.
What is the penalty for depositing payroll taxes late?
The federal failure-to-deposit penalty runs 2% for deposits up to 5 days late, 5% for 5-15 days, 10% beyond 15 days, and 15% if the tax remains unpaid more than ten days after the IRS issues a notice. Filing Form 941 late adds a separate penalty of about 5% of the unpaid tax per month, capped near 25%.
What is the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty?
Withheld income tax and the employee share of Social Security and Medicare are held in trust for the government. When those amounts are not paid over, the IRS can assess a penalty equal to the full unpaid trust-fund amount personally against any responsible person who willfully failed to pay - an owner, officer or bookkeeper. It is one of the few business tax liabilities that reaches through a corporation or LLC to an individual.
Put a state payroll setup review out to competing quotes before you compare prices
Two free marketplace paths: one form brings back multiple vetted payroll providers who know they are competing for the account. Competing quotes are the only reliable way to see what your headcount actually prices at.
External links go to the marketplaces' own sites and forms. This site may earn a referral fee at no cost to you - it never changes the data above, and no individual payroll provider pays to appear in our research.
Prices in nearby cities
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