Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,106
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$10,274
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,282
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$63,380
Kept after tax
$53,106
Worth in national money
$60,282
State rank
41
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Dakota pays this job a middle wage of $63,380, 41 of 49 states and about 19.38% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 457 occupations South Dakota reports figures for, this is number 156.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $63,380 the take-home is $53,106; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $60,282 would nationally. The average comes to $66,920, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- South Dakota's $63,380 median for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary places it 41 of 49 states, about 19.38% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- In South Dakota's occupational distribution, art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary sits at 156 of 457 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Post-tax income for art, drama, and music teachers, postsecondary in South Dakota, on $63,380, is $53,106 — equivalent to $60,282 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 $66,920 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 | $51,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,380 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,890 |
| This salary | $63,380 |
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 South Dakota | $53,106 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,106 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,633 |
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 | $63,380 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$7,337 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,380 as a midpoint for South Dakota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $51,360 and the ninetieth is $81,890 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $53,106 take-home in South Dakota comes from $63,380. 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 156 of 457.
- Two cautions on $60,282, the adjusted value of that $63,380 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 156 of 457 locally.
- The South Dakota median of $63,380 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $51,360 to $81,890. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $53,106, from $63,380, assumes a single South Dakota 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 156 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 41 of 49 for it.
- This $60,282 adjusted figure, worked from $63,380, 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 156 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 156 of 457 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $66,920, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $51,360 and the top tenth $81,890, so most people doing this work in South Dakota sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $60,282.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $53,106 of this wage reaches your account, because South Dakota takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 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 South Dakota is $66,920. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($51,360 to $81,890) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $60,282 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $53,106 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.