Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,436
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$12,854
20.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,673
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$62,290
Kept after tax
$49,436
Worth in national money
$45,673
State rank
19
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Massachusetts pays this job around $62,290 at the midpoint, 19 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Massachusetts, this sits in the middle: 273 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $62,290 the take-home is $49,436. But Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $45,673 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $68,650, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors the Massachusetts median is $62,290, ranking 19 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors ranks 273 of 485 occupations in Massachusetts by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and Massachusetts income tax is $49,436 for adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors, from $62,290. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $45,673. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $68,650 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,290 |
| Top tenth earn over | $98,890 |
| This salary | $62,290 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Massachusetts | $49,436 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,230 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,075 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $58,812 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,766 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors in Massachusetts earn under $62,290 and half over. The published range runs $48,490 at the tenth percentile to $98,890 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Massachusetts's $49,436, worked from $62,290. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 273 of 485.
- Two cautions on $45,673, the adjusted value of that $62,290 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Massachusetts. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 273 of 485 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors in Massachusetts, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $48,490 to $98,890; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Massachusetts take-home of $49,436, on $62,290 for work ranking 273 of 485 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 273 of 485 in the state.
- This $45,673 adjusted figure, worked from $62,290, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 273 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 273 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $68,650 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $48,490 and the top tenth $98,890 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Massachusetts run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $45,673 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Massachusetts adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,436 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Massachusetts is $68,650. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($48,490) and the ninetieth ($98,890) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $45,673 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $49,436 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.