Curators in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,815
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$18,305
23.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,506
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$79,120
Kept after tax
$60,815
Worth in national money
$56,506
State rank
3
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- New York is one of the better-paying states for curators. The middle earner takes $79,120, which ranks 3 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 24.76% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Curators ranks 192 among 493 occupations New York publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $79,120, tax leaves $60,815 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $56,506 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $90,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- New York ranks 3 of 49 states publishing a median for curators, at $79,120 — about 24.76% 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 192 of 493 in New York places curators 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 tax, $60,815 remains from the New York median of $79,120 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $56,506 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $90,630 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Curators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,060 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $148,580 |
| This salary | $79,120 |
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 New York | $60,815 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,491 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,859 |
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 | $73,895 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,495 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 curators in New York earn under $79,120 and half over. The published range runs $46,060 at the tenth percentile to $148,580 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 New York's $60,815, worked from $79,120. 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 192 of 493.
- Two cautions on $56,506, the adjusted value of that $79,120 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New York. 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 192 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for curators in New York, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $46,060 to $148,580; 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 New York take-home of $60,815, on $79,120 for work ranking 192 of 493 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 192 of 493 in the state.
- This $56,506 adjusted figure, worked from $79,120, 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 192 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 192 of 493 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 $90,630, 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $46,060 and the top tenth $148,580 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $56,506 of national purchasing power.
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 New York's own levy, $60,815 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 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 New York is $90,630. 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 ($46,060) and the ninetieth ($148,580) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $56,506 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 $60,815 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.