The Dearborn guide
Dearborn city income tax, explained
Dearborn — Ford’s global home and one of Michigan’s largest cities — has no city income tax. Your paychecks are federal, FICA, and Michigan’s flat 4.25%, with nothing extra to the city.
Dearborn: no city income tax
The city of Dearborn does not levy a city income tax. Residents and non-residents who work in Dearborn owe nothing to the city on wages. Withholding is the standard federal + FICA + Michigan 4.25% stack. For a city of nearly 110,000 people with one of the region’s biggest employment bases, that’s a significant paycheck advantage — and it makes Dearborn a favorite comparison against neighboring Detroit’s 2.4%/1.2% structure.
Ford and the Dearborn employment base
Dearborn is home to Ford Motor Company’s world headquarters and the huge Dearborn development campus, plus a major medical system and a deep industrial base. Ford employees working at the Dearborn campus have no city tax withheld on those wages. Commuters from Detroit, Livonia, Allen Park and beyond pay no city tax for working in Dearborn — though residents of taxing home cities still owe their own city’s resident tax on their income.
What $80,000 looks like in Dearborn
A single filer at $80,000, one exemption, in Dearborn nets roughly $59,880 a year — about $2,303 biweekly — with no city tax. Run the identical salary at a Detroit address and the 2.4% resident rate takes about $1,920 a year. That’s the entire value of Dearborn’s no-tax status — roughly $74 a biweekly check.
The border-city comparison
Dearborn and Detroit share a long border, and jobs straddle it constantly. An identical Ford-area offer on the Dearborn side nets more than one on the Detroit side purely from the city line. Recruiters on both sides of the border know this; the calculator lets job seekers verify it in seconds with the city selector.
What local costs remain
Dearborn funds services through property taxes and fees — none touch wages. A "city tax" or "local tax" line on a Dearborn paycheck is an error. The only wage-level taxes are federal, FICA, and state.
The Ford workforce at scale
Ford’s Dearborn campus — the world headquarters, the product development center and the surrounding offices — employs tens of thousands at a wide range of salaries, from support roles to six-figure engineering positions. None of those employees pay a Dearborn city tax, and the no-tax status is a genuine part of the compensation picture. An engineer at $110,000 working in Dearborn nets roughly $79,700 a year with no city line; the same salary at a Detroit office subtracts 2.4%, about $2,640, before federal even runs. For Ford employees who moved between campuses, the calculator makes the difference explicit.
Hourly and contract roles around the campus
The Dearborn campus also drives a large ecosystem of contracted and hourly work — security, facilities, food service, and the suppliers around Michigan Avenue. Those workers pay no city tax on their Dearborn wages, and the hourly mode shows the true take-home share of each shift. For contract employees whose employer’s payroll may not automatically know about city tax lines, the absence of one in Dearborn removes an entire class of error — a clean stub is the default here, not an accident.
Retirees and the legacy auto pensions
Dearborn has a large retiree population, many with auto-industry pensions. Because Dearborn has no city income tax, Social Security and pensions face no local line at all — a permanent advantage versus Detroit, where the 2.4% resident rate applies to working income and the state’s retirement subtraction limits the pension share. For a retired auto worker comparing Dearborn against a Detroit address, the city-line difference is entirely absent in Dearborn. The calculator’s retirement fields reflect the state rules; Dearborn simply contributes nothing extra.
The border-city math made exact
Dearborn and Detroit share one of the state’s longest city borders, and jobs cross it constantly. A worker who lives in Detroit but works in Dearborn still owes Detroit’s 2.4% resident rate on all their income — Dearborn’s no-tax status doesn’t help them. A Dearborn resident working in Detroit owes Detroit’s 1.2% non-resident rate on those wages. The calculator’s city selector and residency toggle handle both directions, which is the honest way to price any Dearborn–Detroit move.
The Michigan Avenue retail and service economy
Beyond the Ford campus, Dearborn’s Michigan Avenue corridor is a major retail and dining destination, employing a large hourly and service workforce. For those workers the no-city-tax status is real money: a $17/hour server or retail associate keeps the full value of every shift after federal, FICA and state, with no local line. Because the state’s 4.25% is flat and federal brackets at those incomes are low, the take-home share of a Dearborn service paycheck runs noticeably higher than the same job in a taxing city. The hourly mode captures it exactly.
How the calculator handles Dearborn exactly
Leave the city selector at no city tax (or set it to Dearborn, which is non-taxing) and enter gross, frequency, filing status, exemptions and pre-tax amounts. The tool applies federal, FICA and Michigan’s flat 4.25% — no city line — and returns the exact net per period. Toggle the city to Detroit to see the same paycheck with the 2.4% resident or 1.2% non-resident rate applied.
Bonuses and the Ford performance pay
Ford’s performance bonuses are supplemental pay withheld at the 22% federal rate, then at FICA, the state’s 4.25% and — in Dearborn — no city level. A $12,000 bonus in Dearborn keeps roughly $7,930 after the three lines, versus about $7,810 in a 1% city. The bonus mode models it exactly, and for the thousands of Ford employees on the campus, that’s a real annual figure.
Common questions from new residents
New Dearborn residents ask whether the city taxes wages (no), whether working in Detroit adds a line (yes — 1.2% non-resident on Detroit workdays), and whether Ford campus jobs are taxed by any city (no city — Dearborn has none). The calculator answers each with the actual numbers.
Three Dearborn scenarios
An $80,000 resident nets about $59,880 a year with no city line; a $110,000 Ford engineer nets roughly $79,700; and an $80,000 resident who commutes to Detroit carries the 1.2% non-resident rate on Detroit workdays while Dearborn adds nothing. All three are exact in the calculator.
The full withholding stack in Dearborn
A Dearborn resident’s check comes out in four visible layers: federal progressive tax after the standard deduction; FICA at 6.2% and 1.45%; Michigan’s flat 4.25% on the state taxable base after the $5,900 exemption; and no city line. Pre-tax 401(k) and health contributions reduce the federal and state lines together, while FICA is computed on wages net of health only. For the tens of thousands of workers employed at Ford and its suppliers, the campus location inside Dearborn means no city withholding at all — a quiet advantage that the calculator makes visible by leaving the city line blank.
Dearborn vs. the taxing corridor, by the numbers
The comparison that matters most for Dearborn workers is against a taxing city. Take an $82,000 single filer: in Dearborn the annual city line is $0; in Dearborn Heights it is $820 (resident); a Detroit commuter pays 1.2% non-resident on Detroit workdays. Over a year, working in Dearborn versus Detroit can be the difference between roughly $60,200 and $59,200 at the same salary. Because the federal, state and FICA lines are identical, the entire gap is the city tax — which is exactly why the calculator lets you price a Ford-campus offer against a downtown-Detroit one in seconds.
A real check, broken down
Here is what one biweekly check looks like for a Dearborn resident at $80,000, single, no pre-tax deductions: gross $3,077, federal about $411, FICA about $235, Michigan about $110, Dearborn $0. That nets roughly $2,320 per check, or about $60,320 a year. Add a 6% 401(k) and the federal and state lines shrink together while FICA stays — and because Dearborn has no city line, nothing changes there no matter how much you defer.
Dearborn is a no-tax island against Detroit’s taxing border. If your commute crosses into Detroit, only the days worked there are subject to Detroit’s non-resident rate — keep the work-location record straight.