Art Directors in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$80,068
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$29,632
27.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$81,356
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$109,700
Kept after tax
$80,068
Worth in national money
$81,356
State rank
10
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Minnesota pays art directors a middle wage of $109,700, ranking 10 of 46 states and sitting about 4.48% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Minnesota. It ranks 42 out of 490 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $109,700, tax leaves $80,068, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $81,356 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $117,900, since top earners drag the number up.
- Minnesota's median for art directors is $109,700, about 4.48% above the national figure and 10 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Minnesota, art directors ranks 42 of 490 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Minnesota sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for art directors — median $109,700 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $80,068 retained, $81,356 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $117,900 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $70,810 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $109,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $177,680 |
| This salary | $109,700 |
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 Minnesota | $80,068 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $86,004 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,149 |
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 | $101,262 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,874 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
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 Minnesota earn under $109,700 and half over. The published range runs $70,810 at the tenth percentile to $177,680 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $80,068 take-home in Minnesota comes from $109,700. 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 42 of 490.
- One number stands for prices across all of Minnesota, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $81,356, the adjusted value of that $109,700 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 42 of 490 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for art directors in Minnesota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $70,810 to $177,680; 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 $80,068, from $109,700, assumes a single Minnesota 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 42 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 46 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Minnesota, so $81,356 — the adjusted value of that $109,700 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 42 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $117,900, 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 $70,810, the highest tenth $177,680, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $81,356.
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 Minnesota's own levy, $80,068 remains.
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 Minnesota is $117,900. 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 ($70,810) and the ninetieth ($177,680) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Minnesota's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $81,356 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $80,068 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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.