Clergy in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,251
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$8,819
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,528
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — 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
$49,070
Kept after tax
$40,251
Worth in national money
$46,528
State rank
49
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for clergy is on the low side in Arkansas. The middle earner gets $49,070. That is 49 of 50 states, and about 19.31% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Arkansas, this sits in the middle: 233 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $49,070 you keep $40,251 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $46,528 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $52,160, since top earners drag the number up.
- For clergy, Arkansas sits in the lower band at $49,070, ranking 49 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 19.31%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Clergy ranks 233 of 489 occupations in Arkansas 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.
- Retained pay in Arkansas is $40,251 after the full tax stack, from $49,070. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $46,528 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $52,160 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Clergy
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $30,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,850 |
| This salary | $49,070 |
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 Arkansas | $40,251 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,608 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,711 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $47,381 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,488 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
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 clergy in Arkansas earn under $49,070 and half over. The published range runs $30,070 at the tenth percentile to $78,850 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 Arkansas's $40,251, worked from $49,070. 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 233 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arkansas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $46,528, the adjusted value of that $49,070 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 233 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for clergy in Arkansas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $30,070 to $78,850; 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 Arkansas take-home of $40,251, on $49,070 for work ranking 233 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 233 of 489 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arkansas, so $46,528 — the adjusted value of that $49,070 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 233 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $52,160, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $30,070, the highest tenth $78,850, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Arkansas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $46,528 in national terms.
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 Arkansas's own levy, $40,251 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 Arkansas is $52,160. 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 ($30,070) and the ninetieth ($78,850) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Arkansas's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $46,528 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $40,251 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.