Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$78,228
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$25,132
24.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$88,127
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$103,360
Kept after tax
$78,228
Worth in national money
$88,127
State rank
35
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Iowa pays this job a middle wage of $103,360, 35 of 48 states and about 5.41% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Iowa. It ranks 38 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Here is where Iowa does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $103,360 you keep $78,228, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $88,127 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $118,090, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Iowa's $103,360 median for engineering teachers, postsecondary places it 35 of 48 states, about 5.41% 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.
- Within Iowa, engineering teachers, postsecondary ranks 38 of 493 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- After federal, FICA and Iowa income tax, retained pay for engineering teachers, postsecondary on $103,360 is $78,228. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $88,127 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 $118,090 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $63,250 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $103,360 |
| Top tenth earn over | $166,390 |
| This salary | $103,360 |
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 Iowa | $78,228 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $81,544 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,213 |
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 | $98,647 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,819 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $103,360 as a midpoint for Iowa, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $63,250 and the ninetieth is $166,390 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Iowa's $78,228, worked from $103,360. 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 38 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Iowa, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $88,127, the adjusted value of that $103,360 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 38 of 493 in the state.
- The Iowa median of $103,360 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $63,250 to $166,390. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Iowa take-home of $78,228, on $103,360 for work ranking 38 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 38 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Iowa, so $88,127 — the adjusted value of that $103,360 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 38 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 $118,090, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $63,250, the highest tenth $166,390, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Iowa sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $88,127 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Iowa adds its own income tax on top — which is why $78,228 of this wage survives to your account.
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 48 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 Iowa is $118,090. 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 ($63,250) and the ninetieth ($166,390) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Iowa'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 $88,127 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 $78,228 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.