Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary in Indiana

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,117
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$15,933
21.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$65,214
Indiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Indiana — 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
$76,050
Kept after tax
$60,117
Worth in national money
$65,214
State rank
26
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Indiana is 26 of 49 states for this job, with a middle wage of $76,050. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 129 among 493 occupations Indiana publishes pay for.
- Indiana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $76,050 the take-home is $60,117; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $65,214 would nationally. The average comes to $87,730, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Indiana ranks 26 of 49 for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary at $76,050. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Position 129 of 493 in Indiana places art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Post-tax income for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in Indiana, on $76,050, is $60,117 — equivalent to $65,214 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $87,730 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,080 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $76,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $140,900 |
| This salary | $76,050 |
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 Indiana | $60,117 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,331 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,071 |
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 | $72,903 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,480 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
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, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in Indiana earn under $76,050 and half over. The published range runs $49,080 at the tenth percentile to $140,900 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $60,117 take-home in Indiana comes from $76,050. 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 129 of 493.
- Two cautions on $65,214, the adjusted value of that $76,050 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Indiana. 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 129 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in Indiana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $49,080 to $140,900; 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 $60,117, from $76,050, assumes a single Indiana 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 129 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 26 of 49 for it.
- This $65,214 adjusted figure, worked from $76,050, 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 129 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 129 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $87,730, 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 $49,080 at the bottom tenth to $140,900 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Indiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $65,214 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Indiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $60,117 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 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 Indiana is $87,730. 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 ($49,080) and the ninetieth ($140,900) 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?
Indiana'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 $65,214 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 $60,117 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.