Childcare Workers in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,782
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$6,248
17.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,646
Maryland costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maryland — 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
$36,030
Kept after tax
$29,782
Worth in national money
$28,646
State rank
16
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Maryland pays childcare workers a middle wage of $36,030, ranking 16 of 51 states and sitting about 3% above the national middle.
- Within Maryland this is lower-paid work. Of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, childcare workers ranks 466. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $36,030, tax leaves $29,782 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $28,646 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $38,030, since top earners drag the number up.
- Maryland's median for childcare workers is $36,030, about 3% above the national figure and 16 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Against every occupation Maryland reports, childcare workers ranks 466 of 489, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After tax, $29,782 remains from the Maryland median of $36,030 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $28,646 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $38,030 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 | $31,570 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,030 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,280 |
| This salary | $36,030 |
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 Maryland | $29,782 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,130 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,389 |
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 | $34,353 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,098 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
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 childcare workers in Maryland earn under $36,030 and half over. The published range runs $31,570 at the tenth percentile to $47,280 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 Maryland's $29,782, worked from $36,030. 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 466 of 489.
- Two cautions on $28,646, the adjusted value of that $36,030 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Maryland. 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 466 of 489 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for childcare workers in Maryland, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,570 to $47,280; 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 Maryland take-home of $29,782, on $36,030 for work ranking 466 of 489 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 466 of 489 in the state.
- This $28,646 adjusted figure, worked from $36,030, 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 466 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 466 of 489 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 $38,030 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $31,570 at the bottom tenth to $47,280 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 $28,646 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 Maryland adds its own income tax on top — which is why $29,782 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 Maryland is $38,030. 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 ($31,570 to $47,280) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maryland rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Maryland's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $28,646 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 $29,782 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maryland 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.