Art Directors in Connecticut
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$56,207
after federal, FICA and Connecticut tax
Tax takes
$15,693
21.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,207
Connecticut costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Connecticut — 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
$71,900
Kept after tax
$56,207
Worth in national money
$54,207
State rank
42
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Connecticut is among the lower-paying states for art directors. The middle earner takes $71,900, ranking 42 of 46 states — about 37.4% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Connecticut, this sits in the middle: 215 of 482 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $71,900, tax leaves $56,207 — and because Connecticut is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $54,207 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $101,260, since top earners drag the number up.
- Connecticut ranks 42 of 46 for art directors, with a median of $71,900 — about 37.4% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Art directors ranks 215 of 482 occupations in Connecticut 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.
- After tax, $56,207 remains from the Connecticut median of $71,900 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $54,207 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $101,260 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $69,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $71,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $161,580 |
| This salary | $71,900 |
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 Connecticut | $56,207 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $59,412 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,931 |
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 | $67,345 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,055 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
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 art directors in Connecticut earn under $71,900 and half over. The published range runs $69,990 at the tenth percentile to $161,580 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $56,207 take-home in Connecticut comes from $71,900. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 215 of 482.
- Two cautions on $54,207, the adjusted value of that $71,900 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Connecticut. 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 215 of 482 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for art directors in Connecticut, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $69,990 to $161,580; 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.
- Retained pay of $56,207, from $71,900, assumes a single Connecticut filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 215 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 46 for it.
- This $54,207 adjusted figure, worked from $71,900, 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 215 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 215 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $101,260, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $69,990, the highest tenth $161,580, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Connecticut run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $54,207 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Connecticut then takes its own share, leaving $56,207.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 46 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Connecticut is $101,260. 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 ($69,990) and the ninetieth ($161,580) 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?
Connecticut's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $54,207 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 $56,207 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Connecticut 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.