Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,993
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$10,247
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,155
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$63,240
Kept after tax
$52,993
Worth in national money
$60,155
State rank
10
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- South Dakota is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $63,240, which ranks 10 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 6.64% above the national middle.
- Against other work in South Dakota, this sits in the middle: 160 of 457 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where South Dakota does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $63,240 you keep $52,993, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $60,155 would elsewhere. The average is lower, $61,330, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- South Dakota ranks 10 of 50 states publishing a median for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare, at $63,240 — about 6.64% 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.
- Education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare ranks 160 of 457 occupations in South Dakota 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 South Dakota income tax, retained pay for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare on $63,240 is $52,993. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $60,155 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 $61,330 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
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: Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,240 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,690 |
| This salary | $63,240 |
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 South Dakota | $52,993 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,993 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,621 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $63,240 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$7,301 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,240 as a midpoint for South Dakota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $41,800 and the ninetieth is $77,690 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $52,993 take-home in South Dakota comes from $63,240. 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 160 of 457.
- Two cautions on $60,155, the adjusted value of that $63,240 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 160 of 457 locally.
- The South Dakota median of $63,240 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $41,800 to $77,690. 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 $52,993, from $63,240, assumes a single South Dakota 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 160 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 50 for it.
- This $60,155 adjusted figure, worked from $63,240, 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 160 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 160 of 457 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $61,330, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $41,800 at the tenth percentile, $77,690 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. South Dakota is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $60,155 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $52,993 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 South Dakota is $61,330. 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 ($41,800 to $77,690) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $60,155 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $52,993 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.