Art Directors in Ohio
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$73,354
after federal, FICA and Ohio tax
Tax takes
$21,036
22.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$79,896
Ohio costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Ohio — 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
$94,390
Kept after tax
$73,354
Worth in national money
$79,896
State rank
22
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Ohio sits in the middle of the pack for art directors. The median is $94,390, ranking 22 of 46 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 494 occupations Ohio reports, art directors comes in at 74 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $94,390 you keep $73,354 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $79,896 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $100,300, since top earners drag the number up.
- Ohio occupies the middle band for art directors: a median of $94,390, ranking 22 of 46. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Art directors ranks 74 of 494 occupations by median in Ohio, 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.
- Retained pay in Ohio is $73,354 after the full tax stack, from $94,390. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $79,896 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $100,300 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 | $57,740 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $94,390 |
| Top tenth earn over | $148,080 |
| This salary | $94,390 |
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 Ohio | $73,354 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $75,233 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,475 |
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 | $91,719 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,419 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $94,390 as a midpoint for Ohio, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $57,740 and the ninetieth is $148,080 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Ohio the take-home figure of $73,354, from $94,390, 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 74 of 494 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Ohio, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $79,896, the adjusted value of that $94,390 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 74 of 494 in the state.
- The Ohio median of $94,390 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $57,740 to $148,080. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Ohio is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $73,354 from $94,390. 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 74 of 494 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Ohio, so $79,896 — the adjusted value of that $94,390 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 74 of 494 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 $100,300 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $57,740, the highest tenth $148,080, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Ohio is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $79,896 in national terms.
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; Ohio then takes its own share, leaving $73,354.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 46 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Ohio is $100,300. 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 ($57,740) and the ninetieth ($148,080) 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?
Ohio'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 $79,896 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 $73,354 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Ohio 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.