Communications Teachers, Postsecondary in Wisconsin
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,030
after federal, FICA and Wisconsin tax
Tax takes
$17,750
22.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$65,555
Wisconsin costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wisconsin — 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
$78,780
Kept after tax
$61,030
Worth in national money
$65,555
State rank
16
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Wisconsin's middle earner gets $78,780, putting the state 16 of 48 — about 0.25% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 128 among 491 occupations Wisconsin publishes pay for.
- Here is where Wisconsin does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $78,780 you keep $61,030, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $65,555 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $86,130, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For communications teachers, postsecondary, Wisconsin sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $78,780, ranking 16 of 48 and running about 0.25% 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.
- Position 128 of 491 in Wisconsin places communications teachers, postsecondary 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.
- After federal, FICA and Wisconsin income tax, retained pay for communications teachers, postsecondary on $78,780 is $61,030. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $65,555 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $86,130 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Communications Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,180 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $78,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $118,400 |
| This salary | $78,780 |
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 Wisconsin | $61,030 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,252 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$565 |
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 | $74,200 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$780 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
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 communications teachers, postsecondary in Wisconsin earn under $78,780 and half over. The published range runs $53,180 at the tenth percentile to $118,400 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $61,030 take-home in Wisconsin comes from $78,780. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 128 of 491.
- Two cautions on $65,555, the adjusted value of that $78,780 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Wisconsin. 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 128 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for communications teachers, postsecondary in Wisconsin, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $53,180 to $118,400; 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.
- Retained pay of $61,030, from $78,780, assumes a single Wisconsin filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 128 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 16 of 48 for it.
- This $65,555 adjusted figure, worked from $78,780, 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 128 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 128 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 $86,130 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $53,180 and the top tenth $118,400 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Wisconsin is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $65,555 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 Wisconsin's own levy, $61,030 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 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 Wisconsin is $86,130. 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 ($53,180) and the ninetieth ($118,400) 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?
Wisconsin'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 $65,555 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 $61,030 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Wisconsin 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.