Typically, people think about income in terms of gross pay. They'll say things like "I make $65,000 a year" or "My son has a job that pays $8.50 an hour." However, that's not how much we usually take home.

Many different taxes come out of our "gross" income before it becomes our "net" or "take home pay." Federal and state income taxes, Social Security withholdings called FICA and Medicare, and often other taxes are typically applied against your salary.

When all of these taxes are added together, many employees take home as little as 60 cents in "net pay" for every dollar earned in "gross pay."

If you could use "gross pay" for everyday expenses and take advantage of that whole dollar before taxes are deducted (i.e. "pretax"), you could save up to 40 percent. That's exactly what WageWorks enables you to do for a variety of health, dependent care and commuter benefits.

Find out more by visiting our Health Care FSA, Dependent Care FSA, HSA and Commuter pages.