Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$77,547
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$25,143
24.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$76,467
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$102,690
Kept after tax
$77,547
Worth in national money
$76,467
State rank
36
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Rhode Island pays this job a middle wage of $102,690, 36 of 48 states and about 6.02% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 452 occupations Rhode Island reports, this job comes in at 67 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $102,690 the take-home is $77,547, which is worth about $76,467 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $108,450, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Rhode Island's $102,690 median for engineering teachers, postsecondary places it 36 of 48 states, about 6.02% 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.
- Engineering teachers, postsecondary ranks 67 of 452 occupations by median in Rhode Island, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Rhode Island's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for engineering teachers, postsecondary on its $102,690 median: $77,547 retained after tax becomes $76,467 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $108,450 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 | $49,290 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $102,690 |
| Top tenth earn over | $171,820 |
| This salary | $102,690 |
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 Rhode Island | $77,547 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $81,072 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,962 |
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 | $97,679 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,616 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 engineering teachers, postsecondary in Rhode Island earn under $102,690 and half over. The published range runs $49,290 at the tenth percentile to $171,820 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Rhode Island's $77,547, worked from $102,690. 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 67 of 452.
- Two cautions on $76,467, the adjusted value of that $102,690 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 67 of 452 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for engineering teachers, postsecondary in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $49,290 to $171,820; 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.
- The Rhode Island take-home of $77,547, on $102,690 for work ranking 67 of 452 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 67 of 452 in the state.
- This $76,467 adjusted figure, worked from $102,690, 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 67 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 67 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $108,450 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $49,290 at the bottom tenth to $171,820 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $76,467 of national purchasing power.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $77,547 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 Rhode Island is $108,450. 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 ($49,290) and the ninetieth ($171,820) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $76,467 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 $77,547 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.