Art Directors in New Hampshire
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$101,488
after federal, FICA and New Hampshire tax
Tax takes
$30,512
23.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$96,339
New Hampshire costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Hampshire — 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
$132,000
Kept after tax
$101,488
Worth in national money
$96,339
State rank
5
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for art directors is strong here. New Hampshire's middle earner gets $132,000, putting the state 5 of 46 — about 14.93% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 488 occupations New Hampshire reports, art directors comes in at 28 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $132,000, tax leaves $101,488 — and because New Hampshire is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $96,339 would nationally. Here the average runs under the middle, at $117,230.
- For art directors, New Hampshire sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $132,000, ranking 5 of 46 and running about 14.93% 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.
- Art directors ranks 28 of 488 occupations by median in New Hampshire, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- After tax, $101,488 remains from the New Hampshire median of $132,000 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $96,339 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $117,230 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $70,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $132,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $169,950 |
| This salary | $132,000 |
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 New Hampshire | $101,488 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $101,488 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,100 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $132,000 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,478 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 105 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New Hampshire earn less than $132,000. The published range is $70,990 up to $169,950, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In New Hampshire the take-home figure of $101,488, from $132,000, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 28 of 488 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $96,339 uses one figure for the whole of New Hampshire. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 28.
- Reported values are medians; for art directors in New Hampshire the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $70,990 to $169,950. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for New Hampshire is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $101,488 from $132,000. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 28 of 488 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $96,339, worked from $132,000, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular New Hampshire address, on work sitting at 28 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $117,230, 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 $70,990, the highest tenth $169,950, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $96,339 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $101,488 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 New Hampshire is $117,230. 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 ($70,990) and the ninetieth ($169,950) 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?
New Hampshire's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $96,339 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
New Hampshire levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $101,488 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.