Dental Assistants in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,300
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$9,320
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,802
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
$48,620
Kept after tax
$39,300
Worth in national money
$37,802
State rank
19
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Maryland sits in the middle of the pack for dental assistants. The median is $48,620, ranking 19 of 50 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Maryland, this sits in the middle: 351 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $48,620, tax leaves $39,300 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $37,802 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $50,720, since top earners drag the number up.
- Maryland occupies the middle band for dental assistants: a median of $48,620, ranking 19 of 50. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Dental assistants ranks 351 of 489 occupations in Maryland 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.
- After tax, $39,300 remains from the Maryland median of $48,620 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $37,802 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $50,720 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Dental Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,620 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,710 |
| This salary | $48,620 |
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 | $39,300 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,246 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,644 |
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 | $46,198 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,616 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $48,620 as a midpoint for Maryland, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,560 and the ninetieth is $61,710 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $39,300 take-home in Maryland comes from $48,620. 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 351 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maryland, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,802, the adjusted value of that $48,620 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 351 of 489 in the state.
- The Maryland median of $48,620 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,560 to $61,710. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $39,300, from $48,620, assumes a single Maryland 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 351 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 19 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maryland, so $37,802 — the adjusted value of that $48,620 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 351 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $50,720, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $35,560 at the bottom tenth to $61,710 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 $37,802 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 Maryland's own levy, $39,300 remains.
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.
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 $50,720. 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 ($35,560 to $61,710) 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 $37,802 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 $39,300 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.
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.