Art Directors in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$106,180
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$43,140
28.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$98,099
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
$149,320
Kept after tax
$106,180
Worth in national money
$98,099
State rank
1
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for art directors is strong here. Massachusetts's middle earner gets $149,320, putting the state 1 of 46 — about 30.01% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Massachusetts this is well-paid work. Of 485 occupations with published figures in the state, art directors ranks 22 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $149,320 the take-home is $106,180. But Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $98,099 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is lower, $147,040, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- For art directors, Massachusetts sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $149,320, ranking 1 of 46 and running about 30.01% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Ranked against every occupation Massachusetts publishes a median for, art directors sits 22 of 485 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and Massachusetts income tax is $106,180 for art directors, from $149,320. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $98,099. ⚠️ 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 $147,040 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in 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: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $78,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $149,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $218,270 |
| This salary | $149,320 |
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 | $106,180 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $113,326 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$18,522 |
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 | $138,865 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$26,333 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $149,320 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $78,470 and the ninetieth is $218,270 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Massachusetts's $106,180, worked from $149,320. 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 22 of 485.
- Two cautions on $98,099, the adjusted value of that $149,320 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 22 of 485 locally.
- The Massachusetts median of $149,320 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $78,470 to $218,270. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Massachusetts take-home of $106,180, on $149,320 for work ranking 22 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 22 of 485 in the state.
- This $98,099 adjusted figure, worked from $149,320, 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 22 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 22 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $78,470 and the top tenth $218,270 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $98,099 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Massachusetts's own levy, $106,180 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($78,470) and the ninetieth ($218,270) 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 $98,099 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 $106,180 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.