The CA OASDI/EE line on your California paycheck is your share of the federal Social Security tax: 6.2% of your gross wages, withheld by your employer and sent to the IRS. In 2026, it applies to the first $184,500 you earn for the year. The “CA” at the front is misleading. This is not a California state tax, and California does not collect it.
Why “CA” Shows Up on a Federal Tax
There is no California version of OASDI. The prefix is a quirk of payroll software that groups your deductions under your work state. Your stub probably also carries lines like “CA SDI” (California State Disability Insurance) and “CA PIT” (California Personal Income Tax), so the system tags the federal Social Security withholding with the same “CA” header to keep everything filed under one state. For employers with workers in several states, that tagging tells the system which state’s payroll rules to run. The tax itself is identical in every state.
What OASDI and EE Stand For
OASDI is Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, the formal name for Social Security under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. The three parts of the name point to the three kinds of benefits the tax pays for: retirement income, payments to a worker’s family after death, and support for workers who become disabled.
The “EE” is payroll shorthand for employee. It flags the deduction as your half of the tax, separate from the matching half your employer pays on its own.
How Much Comes Out in 2026
The employee rate is 6.2% of gross wages. That rate has been fixed since 1990.
You don’t pay it on every dollar, though. The Social Security Administration sets an annual wage base limit, and once your year-to-date earnings pass it, your employer stops withholding OASDI for the rest of the calendar year. For 2026, the limit is $184,500, which caps the employee OASDI tax at $11,439.00 for the year. If your pay runs well above the limit, you’ll see your take-home rise in the later months once withholding stops. The deduction resets on January 1.
Your Employer Pays the Same Amount
Your employer matches your 6.2% dollar for dollar, so the total OASDI tax on your wages is 12.4%. The employer half doesn’t appear on your stub because it’s a separate cost the business pays on top of what you earn.
Self-employed workers cover both halves themselves at the full 12.4% rate under the Self-Employment Contributions Act. Federal law lets them deduct half of the self-employment tax when figuring adjusted gross income, which lowers income tax owed on other earnings without reducing the self-employment tax itself.
OASDI vs. Medicare on the Same Stub
Right next to the OASDI line, your stub shows a second FICA deduction, usually labeled Medicare or “HI” (Hospital Insurance). The two taxes come out together but follow different rules.
- OASDI (Social Security) is 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 in 2026. Nothing more is withheld above that.
- Medicare is 1.45% of all wages with no cap. An extra 0.9% applies to wages above $200,000 for a single filer, or $250,000 for a married couple filing jointly.
Combined, the standard employee FICA rate is 7.65% on wages up to the OASDI cap, and 1.45% on anything above. Your employer matches the 6.2% and the 1.45%, but not the additional 0.9%.
When You Might Be Overpaying
The most common overpayment happens when you hold two or more jobs in the same year. Each employer withholds 6.2% independently and has no way of knowing what any other employer has already taken. If your combined wages pass $184,500, more OASDI comes out than you actually owe.
You don’t need a special form for this. When you file your federal income tax return, claim the excess Social Security tax as a credit; the Form 1040 instructions walk through the calculation, and each spouse on a joint return figures their own excess separately.
If a single employer withholds too much (a payroll error, usually), ask the employer to fix it first. If they can’t or won’t refund you, you can file IRS Form 843 with a copy of your W-2 to claim the overpayment from the IRS directly. You generally have three years from the date you filed the return, or two years from when you paid the tax, whichever is later.