Money & budgets
marginal tax rate
The rate applied to your next dollar of income, not to all of it. The effective rate, what you actually pay overall, is always lower.
In full
In a bracketed system each portion of income is taxed at its own rate. Someone in the 24 percent bracket pays 24 percent only on the income above that bracket's threshold. Confusing marginal with effective rates is the single most common misunderstanding in tax discussion, and it drives the persistent myth that a raise can leave you worse off.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.