Find the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax paid by William Petra for the current pay period. Assume all William's earnings are subject to both taxes and that the FICA rate is $6.2 \%$ and the Medicare rate is $1.45 \%$. \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline Employee & \begin{tabular}{c} Earnings Current \\ Pay Period \end{tabular} & FICA @ $6.2 \%$ & Medicare @ $1.45 \%$ \\ \hline Petra, W. & $\$ 501.26$ & & \\ \hline \end{tabular} What is the FICA tax deducted from William's current gross earnings?

Step 1 ：Given that William Petra's earnings for the current pay period is $501.26 and the FICA rate is 6.2%.

Step 2 ：To find the FICA tax deducted from William's current gross earnings, we need to multiply his earnings for the current pay period by the FICA rate.

Step 3 ：First, convert the FICA rate from percentage to a decimal by dividing by 100. So, \(6.2\% = \frac{6.2}{100} = 0.062\).

Step 4 ：Next, multiply this decimal by William's earnings to find the FICA tax. So, \(FICA\ tax = 0.062 \times 501.26 = 31.07812\).

Step 5 ：Rounding to the nearest cent, the FICA tax deducted from William's current gross earnings is approximately $31.08.

Step 6 ：Final Answer: The FICA tax deducted from William's current gross earnings is approximately \(\boxed{31.08}\).