Child, Family, and School Social Workers in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$55,783
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$14,087
20.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,007
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
$69,870
Kept after tax
$55,783
Worth in national money
$55,007
State rank
8
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $69,870, putting the state 8 of 51 — about 17.33% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Rhode Island, this sits in the middle: 199 of 452 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $69,870, tax leaves $55,783, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $55,007 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $70,810, since top earners drag the number up.
- For child, family, and school social workers, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $69,870, ranking 8 of 51 and running about 17.33% 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.
- Child, family, and school social workers ranks 199 of 452 occupations in Rhode Island 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.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for child, family, and school social workers — median $69,870 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $55,783 retained, $55,007 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $70,810 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Child, Family, and School Social Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $69,870 |
| Top tenth earn over | $97,730 |
| This salary | $69,870 |
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 | $55,783 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $57,984 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,662 |
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 | $66,743 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,058 |
| 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 child, family, and school social workers in Rhode Island earn under $69,870 and half over. The published range runs $42,560 at the tenth percentile to $97,730 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Rhode Island's $55,783, worked from $69,870. 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 199 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 $55,007, the adjusted value of that $69,870 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 199 of 452 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for child, family, and school social workers in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $42,560 to $97,730; 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.
- The Rhode Island take-home of $55,783, on $69,870 for work ranking 199 of 452 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 199 of 452 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $55,007 — the adjusted value of that $69,870 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 199 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $42,560, the highest tenth $97,730, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $55,007 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $55,783 of this wage survives to your account.
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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($42,560) and the ninetieth ($97,730) 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 $55,007 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 $55,783 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.