Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,178
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$16,562
21.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$68,919
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$77,740
Kept after tax
$61,178
Worth in national money
$68,919
State rank
20
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Iowa sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $77,740, ranking 20 of 49 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Iowa. It ranks 120 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Iowa is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $77,740 the take-home is $61,178; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $68,919 would nationally. The average comes to $90,180, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Iowa occupies the middle band for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary: a median of $77,740, ranking 20 of 49. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Within Iowa, art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary ranks 120 of 493 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.
- Post-tax income for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in Iowa, on $77,740, is $61,178 — equivalent to $68,919 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 $90,180 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, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,290 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $159,410 |
| This salary | $77,740 |
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 Iowa | $61,178 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,520 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,553 |
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 | $74,410 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,908 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $77,740 as a midpoint for Iowa, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,290 and the ninetieth is $159,410 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Iowa's $61,178, worked from $77,740. 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 120 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Iowa, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $68,919, the adjusted value of that $77,740 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 120 of 493 in the state.
- The Iowa median of $77,740 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,290 to $159,410. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Iowa take-home of $61,178, on $77,740 for work ranking 120 of 493 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 120 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Iowa, so $68,919 — the adjusted value of that $77,740 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 120 of 493 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 $90,180 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 $47,290, the highest tenth $159,410, 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. Iowa is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $68,919 in national terms.
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 Iowa adds its own income tax on top — which is why $61,178 of this wage survives to your account.
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 49 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 Iowa is $90,180. 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 ($47,290) and the ninetieth ($159,410) 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?
Iowa'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 $68,919 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 $61,178 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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.