Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$79,904
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$28,366
26.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$73,823
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
$108,270
Kept after tax
$79,904
Worth in national money
$73,823
State rank
3
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Massachusetts's middle earner gets $108,270, putting the state 3 of 48 — about 16.11% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Massachusetts. It ranks 79 out of 485 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $108,270, tax leaves $79,904 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $73,823 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $130,570, since top earners drag the number up.
- For chemistry teachers, postsecondary, Massachusetts sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $108,270, ranking 3 of 48 and running about 16.11% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Massachusetts, chemistry teachers, postsecondary ranks 79 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.
- After tax, $79,904 remains from the Massachusetts median of $108,270 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $73,823 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $130,570 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $66,080 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $108,270 |
| Top tenth earn over | $216,670 |
| This salary | $108,270 |
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 | $79,904 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $84,998 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$13,646 |
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 | $101,030 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$18,849 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $108,270 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $66,080 and the ninetieth is $216,670 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Massachusetts the take-home figure of $79,904, from $108,270, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 79 of 485 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Massachusetts, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $73,823, the adjusted value of that $108,270 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 79 of 485 in the state.
- The Massachusetts median of $108,270 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $66,080 to $216,670. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Massachusetts is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $79,904 from $108,270. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 79 of 485 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Massachusetts, so $73,823 — the adjusted value of that $108,270 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 79 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 $130,570 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 $66,080, the highest tenth $216,670, 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 $73,823 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, $79,904 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 48 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $130,570. 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 ($66,080) and the ninetieth ($216,670) 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?
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 $73,823 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 $79,904 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.