Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary in New Mexico
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$74,839
after federal, FICA and New Mexico tax
Tax takes
$23,981
24.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$82,799
New Mexico costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Mexico — 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
$98,820
Kept after tax
$74,839
Worth in national money
$82,799
State rank
10
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. New Mexico pays this job a middle wage of $98,820, ranking 10 of 49 states and sitting about 16.78% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in New Mexico. It ranks 63 out of 485 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $98,820 you keep $74,839 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $82,799 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $105,120, since top earners drag the number up.
- New Mexico's median for biological science teachers, postsecondary is $98,820, about 16.78% above the national figure and 10 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within New Mexico, biological science teachers, postsecondary ranks 63 of 485 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.
- Retained pay in New Mexico is $74,839 after the full tax stack, from $98,820. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $82,799 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $105,120 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $62,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $98,820 |
| Top tenth earn over | $147,510 |
| This salary | $98,820 |
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 New Mexico | $74,839 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $78,350 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,171 |
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 | $93,829 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,999 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New Mexico earn less than $98,820. The published range is $62,510 up to $147,510, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind New Mexico's $74,839, worked from $98,820. 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 63 of 485.
- Two cautions on $82,799, the adjusted value of that $98,820 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Mexico. 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 63 of 485 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for biological science teachers, postsecondary in New Mexico the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $62,510 to $147,510. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The New Mexico take-home of $74,839, on $98,820 for work ranking 63 of 485 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 63 of 485 in the state.
- This $82,799 adjusted figure, worked from $98,820, 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 63 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 63 of 485 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 $105,120 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 $62,510, the highest tenth $147,510, 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. New Mexico is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $82,799 in national terms.
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 New Mexico's own levy, $74,839 remains.
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 New Mexico is $105,120. 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 ($62,510) and the ninetieth ($147,510) 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?
New Mexico'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 $82,799 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 $74,839 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Mexico 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.