Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$93,871
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$39,089
29.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$83,381
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$132,960
Kept after tax
$93,871
Worth in national money
$83,381
State rank
1
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- California is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $132,960, which ranks 1 of 48 states with published figures. That is about 42.58% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in California. It ranks 50 out of 492 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- California is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $132,960 the take-home is $93,871; in national-average money that behaves like $83,381. The average comes to $154,490, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- California ranks 1 of 48 states publishing a median for chemistry teachers, postsecondary, at $132,960 — about 42.58% 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.
- Within California, chemistry teachers, postsecondary ranks 50 of 492 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.
- Take-home for chemistry teachers, postsecondary in California, on $132,960, is $93,871; deflated by the state's price level, $83,381. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $154,490 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $78,450 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $132,960 |
| Top tenth earn over | $278,510 |
| This salary | $132,960 |
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 California | $93,871 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $102,144 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$21,733 |
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 | $120,883 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$30,337 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $132,960 as a midpoint for California, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $78,450 and the ninetieth is $278,510 — 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 California's $93,871, worked from $132,960. 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 50 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of California, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $83,381, the adjusted value of that $132,960 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 50 of 492 in the state.
- The California median of $132,960 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $78,450 to $278,510. 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 California take-home of $93,871, on $132,960 for work ranking 50 of 492 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 50 of 492 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for California, so $83,381 — the adjusted value of that $132,960 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 50 of 492 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 $154,490 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 $78,450, the highest tenth $278,510, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $83,381 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 California's own levy, $93,871 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 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 California is $154,490. 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 ($78,450) and the ninetieth ($278,510) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $83,381 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 $93,871 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.