Art Directors in Oregon
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$91,515
after federal, FICA and Oregon tax
Tax takes
$42,325
31.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$87,389
Oregon costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oregon — 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
$133,840
Kept after tax
$91,515
Worth in national money
$87,389
State rank
4
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Oregon pays art directors a middle wage of $133,840, ranking 4 of 46 states and sitting about 16.53% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 489 occupations Oregon reports, art directors comes in at 25 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Oregon is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $133,840 the take-home is $91,515; in national-average money that behaves like $87,389. The average comes to $152,490, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Oregon's median for art directors is $133,840, about 16.53% above the national figure and 4 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.
- Art directors ranks 25 of 489 occupations by median in Oregon, 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.
- Take-home for art directors in Oregon, on $133,840, is $91,515; deflated by the state's price level, $87,389. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $152,490 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $89,390 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $133,840 |
| Top tenth earn over | $216,700 |
| This salary | $133,840 |
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 Oregon | $91,515 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $102,746 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$18,343 |
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 | $117,533 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$25,680 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 105 |
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 Oregon earn under $133,840 and half over. The published range runs $89,390 at the tenth percentile to $216,700 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Oregon's $91,515, worked from $133,840. 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 25 of 489.
- Two cautions on $87,389, the adjusted value of that $133,840 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Oregon. 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 25 of 489 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for art directors in Oregon, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $89,390 to $216,700; 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.
- The Oregon take-home of $91,515, on $133,840 for work ranking 25 of 489 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 25 of 489 in the state.
- This $87,389 adjusted figure, worked from $133,840, 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 25 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 25 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $152,490, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $89,390 at the bottom tenth to $216,700 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $87,389 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 Oregon's own levy, $91,515 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.
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 Oregon is $152,490. 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 ($89,390) and the ninetieth ($216,700) 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?
Oregon's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $87,389 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 $91,515 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oregon 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.