Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$73,206
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$24,814
25.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$67,634
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$98,020
Kept after tax
$73,206
Worth in national money
$67,634
State rank
3
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Massachusetts is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $98,020, which ranks 3 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 47.91% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Massachusetts, this sits in the middle: 123 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $98,020, tax leaves $73,206 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $67,634 would nationally. Here the average runs under the middle, at $93,230.
- Massachusetts ranks 3 of 49 states publishing a median for career/technical education teachers, secondary school, at $98,020 — about 47.91% 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.
- Career/technical education teachers, secondary school ranks 123 of 485 occupations in Massachusetts by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- After tax, $73,206 remains from the Massachusetts median of $98,020 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $67,634 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $93,230 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $77,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $98,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $111,560 |
| This salary | $98,020 |
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 Massachusetts | $73,206 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $77,787 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$12,414 |
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 | $91,508 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$17,148 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $98,020 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $77,530 and the ninetieth is $111,560 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $73,206 take-home in Massachusetts comes from $98,020. 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 123 of 485.
- Two cautions on $67,634, the adjusted value of that $98,020 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Massachusetts. 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 123 of 485 locally.
- The Massachusetts median of $98,020 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $77,530 to $111,560. 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 $73,206, from $98,020, assumes a single Massachusetts 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 123 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 3 of 49 for it.
- This $67,634 adjusted figure, worked from $98,020, 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 123 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 123 of 485 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 $93,230, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $77,530 at the bottom tenth to $111,560 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $67,634 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 Massachusetts's own levy, $73,206 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 Massachusetts is $93,230. 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 ($77,530 to $111,560) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Massachusetts rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $67,634 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 $73,206 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.