Clergy in Maine

Two armchairs facing each other in a welcoming counseling room.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$50,854

after federal, FICA and Maine tax

Tax takes

$13,486

21.0% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$52,375

Maine costs less than average

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

$64,340

Kept after tax

$50,854

Worth in national money

$52,375

State rank

9

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Maine is one of the better-paying states for clergy. The middle earner takes $64,340, which ranks 9 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 5.8% above the national middle.
  • Ordinary, locally speaking. Clergy ranks 185 among 484 occupations Maine publishes pay for.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $64,340, tax leaves $50,854, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $52,375 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $64,070.
  • Maine ranks 9 of 50 states publishing a median for clergy, at $64,340 — about 5.8% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
  • Position 185 of 484 in Maine places clergy in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
  • Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for clergy — median $64,340 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $50,854 retained, $52,375 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $64,070 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.

Compare this career across states

Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.

Pay band: Clergy

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$47,390
Half earn under$64,340
Top tenth earn over$74,030
This salary$64,340

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

Compare with
+$3,023take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Maine$50,854
Take-home in Texas$53,877
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$3,069

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

Moving to
$0now · $64,340$60,629
$60,629in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$60,578
You could take a cut of−$3,711
Prices in Texas97 vs 97

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Half the people doing this work in Maine earn less than $64,340. The published range is $47,390 up to $74,030, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Maine's $50,854, worked from $64,340. 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 185 of 484.
  • Two cautions on $52,375, the adjusted value of that $64,340 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Maine. 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 185 of 484 locally.
  • Reported values are medians; for clergy in Maine the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $47,390 to $74,030. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • The Maine take-home of $50,854, on $64,340 for work ranking 185 of 484 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 185 of 484 in the state.
  • This $52,375 adjusted figure, worked from $64,340, 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 185 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 185 of 484 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $47,390 and the top tenth $74,030, so most people doing this work in Maine sit within a fairly tight band.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Maine sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $52,375 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?

Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Maine then takes its own share, leaving $50,854.

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 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($47,390 to $74,030) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Maine'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 $52,375 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 $50,854 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.