Dental Assistants in Vermont
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,061
after federal, FICA and Vermont tax
Tax takes
$9,699
18.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,561
Vermont costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Vermont — 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
$52,760
Kept after tax
$43,061
Worth in national money
$44,561
State rank
11
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Vermont pays dental assistants a middle wage of $52,760, ranking 11 of 50 states and sitting about 9.76% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Vermont, this sits in the middle: 298 of 453 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Vermont does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $52,760 you keep $43,061, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $44,561 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $54,550, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Vermont's median for dental assistants is $52,760, about 9.76% above the national figure and 11 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Dental assistants ranks 298 of 453 occupations in Vermont 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 federal, FICA and Vermont income tax, retained pay for dental assistants on $52,760 is $43,061. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $44,561 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 $54,550 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Dental Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,260 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $52,760 |
| Top tenth earn over | $66,410 |
| This salary | $52,760 |
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 Vermont | $43,061 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,573 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,308 |
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 | $50,879 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,581 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $52,760 as a midpoint for Vermont, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,260 and the ninetieth is $66,410 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $43,061 take-home in Vermont comes from $52,760. 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 298 of 453.
- One number stands for prices across all of Vermont, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $44,561, the adjusted value of that $52,760 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 298 of 453 in the state.
- The Vermont median of $52,760 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,260 to $66,410. 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 $43,061, from $52,760, assumes a single Vermont 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 298 of 453 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Vermont, so $44,561 — the adjusted value of that $52,760 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 298 of 453 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 $54,550, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $45,260 at the tenth percentile, $66,410 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $44,561.
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; Vermont then takes its own share, leaving $43,061.
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 Vermont is $54,550. 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 ($45,260 to $66,410) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Vermont rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Vermont'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 $44,561 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 $43,061 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Vermont 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.