Q. What are the tax rates and the Social Security wage base limit?

These taxes have different tax rates and only the social security tax has a wage base limit. The wage base limit is the maximum wage that is subject to the tax for the year. For 2006, the wage base is $94,200 and the employee tax rate is 6.2%.
For 2005, the wage base was $90,000 and the employee tax rate was 6.2%. There is no wage base limit for Medicare tax. All covered wages are subject to Medicare tax at 1.45%. (Taken from IRS Publication 15, Circular E page 16).

Q. What are the different retirement rates?

Employee:
6% for TSERS, LAW, and ORP retirement systems

Employer:
TSERS (Teachers and State Employees Retirement System) 7.14% of gross wages

ORP (TIAA, VALIC, Lincoln, Fidelity) 6.84% of gross wages

ORP Health/Disability (additional benefit that accompanies the ORP retirement benefit) 4.32% of gross wages

Law 7.14% plus 5% for supplemental retirement

Q. What is the current minimum wage?

Current minimum wage: $5.15