Education Teachers, Postsecondary in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$53,082
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$10,268
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,255
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
$63,350
Kept after tax
$53,082
Worth in national money
$60,255
State rank
38
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Dakota pays this job a middle wage of $63,350, 38 of 49 states and about 15.93% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 158 among 457 occupations South Dakota publishes pay for.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $63,350 the take-home is $53,082; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $60,255 would nationally. The average comes to $67,350, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- South Dakota's $63,350 median for education teachers, postsecondary places it 38 of 49 states, about 15.93% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Position 158 of 457 in South Dakota places education 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.
- Post-tax income for education teachers, postsecondary in South Dakota, on $63,350, is $53,082 — equivalent to $60,255 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $67,350 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $55,550 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,690 |
| This salary | $63,350 |
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 | $53,082 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,082 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,630 |
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 | $63,350 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$7,329 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
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 education teachers, postsecondary in South Dakota earn under $63,350 and half over. The published range runs $55,550 at the tenth percentile to $82,690 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In South Dakota the take-home figure of $53,082, from $63,350, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 158 of 457 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $60,255, the adjusted value of that $63,350 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 158 of 457 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for education teachers, postsecondary in South Dakota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $55,550 to $82,690; 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.
- Take-home for South Dakota is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $53,082 from $63,350. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 158 of 457 locally.
- This $60,255 adjusted figure, worked from $63,350, 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 158 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 158 of 457 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 $67,350, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $55,550 at the bottom tenth to $82,690 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $60,255.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $53,082 of this wage reaches your account, because South Dakota takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
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 South Dakota is $67,350. 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 ($55,550 to $82,690) 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 $60,255 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 $53,082 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.