Career/Technical Education Teachers, Postsecondary in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,551
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$12,659
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,819
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$65,210
Kept after tax
$52,551
Worth in national money
$51,819
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $65,210, which ranks 16 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 2.18% above the national middle.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 452 occupations Rhode Island reports figures for, this is number 211.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $65,210 the take-home is $52,551, which is worth about $51,819 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $71,710, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Rhode Island ranks 16 of 51 states publishing a median for career/technical education teachers, postsecondary, at $65,210 — about 2.18% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- In Rhode Island's occupational distribution, career/technical education teachers, postsecondary sits at 211 of 452 — 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.
- Rhode Island's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for career/technical education teachers, postsecondary on its $65,210 median: $52,551 retained after tax becomes $51,819 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $71,710 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Career/Technical Education Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $65,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $97,680 |
| This salary | $65,210 |
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 Rhode Island | $52,551 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,576 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,344 |
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 | $62,689 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,253 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 career/technical education teachers, postsecondary in Rhode Island earn under $65,210 and half over. The published range runs $49,510 at the tenth percentile to $97,680 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $52,551 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $65,210. 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 211 of 452.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $51,819, the adjusted value of that $65,210 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 211 of 452 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for career/technical education teachers, postsecondary in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $49,510 to $97,680; 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 $52,551, from $65,210, assumes a single Rhode Island 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 211 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 16 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $51,819 — the adjusted value of that $65,210 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 211 of 452 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 $71,710 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $49,510 at the bottom tenth to $97,680 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 $51,819 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 Rhode Island's own levy, $52,551 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Rhode Island is $71,710. 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 ($49,510) and the ninetieth ($97,680) 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?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $51,819 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 $52,551 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.