Childcare Workers in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,908
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$5,192
14.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,581
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$35,100
Kept after tax
$29,908
Worth in national money
$29,581
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Arizona pays childcare workers around $35,100 at the midpoint, 21 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 491 occupations Arizona publishes, childcare workers lands at 480. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $35,100, tax leaves $29,908, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $29,581 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $36,350, since top earners drag the number up.
- For childcare workers the Arizona median is $35,100, ranking 21 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Arizona, this work ranks 480 of 491 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for childcare workers — median $35,100 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $29,908 retained, $29,581 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $36,350 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Childcare Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $45,660 |
| This salary | $35,100 |
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 Arizona | $29,908 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,383 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,685 |
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 | $34,509 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,038 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,100 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $30,830 and the ninetieth is $45,660 — 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 Arizona's $29,908, worked from $35,100. 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 480 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $29,581 uses one figure for the whole of Arizona. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 480.
- The Arizona median of $35,100 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $30,830 to $45,660. 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 Arizona take-home of $29,908, on $35,100 for work ranking 480 of 491 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 480 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $29,581, worked from $35,100, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Arizona address, on work sitting at 480 of 491 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 $36,350 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $30,830 and the top tenth $45,660, so most people doing this work in Arizona sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $29,581 of national purchasing power.
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 Arizona adds its own income tax on top — which is why $29,908 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.
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 Arizona is $36,350. 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 ($30,830 to $45,660) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $29,581 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 $29,908 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.