Almost all Americans who work for wages pay a payroll tax that is withheld from their taxable wages.

The cap on taxable wages for Hospital Insurance (Medicare) was raised from $53,400 to $125,000.

In contrast, taxable wages and salaries make up almost all of the income of most Americans.

In addition to the regressive taxes, the ceilings on taxable wages bear little relation to the benefits paid to a company's laid-off workers.

In Pennsylvania the maximum annual taxable wage is $8,000.

HBO will include the value of the benefits to an employee's taxable wages in his or her annual W-2 form.

But public assistance payments are not income and cannot be counted as taxable wages or income in the program.

The tax is a percentage of taxable wages with a cap.

Or workers could take their share of the tax cut as an increase in take-home pay equal to 1 percent of taxable wages.

It is a regressive tax, with workers paying .625 percent on the first $18,000 earned in taxable wages.