English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,991
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$17,199
21.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,127
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
$79,190
Kept after tax
$61,991
Worth in national money
$61,127
State rank
20
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Rhode Island pays this job around $79,190 at the midpoint, 20 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Rhode Island, this sits in the middle: 155 of 452 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $79,190, tax leaves $61,991, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,127 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $92,970, since top earners drag the number up.
- For english language and literature teachers, postsecondary the Rhode Island median is $79,190, ranking 20 of 49 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- English language and literature teachers, postsecondary ranks 155 of 452 occupations in Rhode Island 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.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for english language and literature teachers, postsecondary — median $79,190 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $61,991 retained, $61,127 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $92,970 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $64,700 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,190 |
| Top tenth earn over | $129,890 |
| This salary | $79,190 |
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 | $61,991 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,540 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,289 |
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 | $75,566 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,306 |
| 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 english language and literature teachers, postsecondary in Rhode Island earn under $79,190 and half over. The published range runs $64,700 at the tenth percentile to $129,890 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $61,991 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $79,190. 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 155 of 452.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $61,127, the adjusted value of that $79,190 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 155 of 452 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for english language and literature teachers, postsecondary in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $64,700 to $129,890; 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.
- Retained pay of $61,991, from $79,190, assumes a single Rhode Island 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 155 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 20 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $61,127 — the adjusted value of that $79,190 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 155 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 $92,970 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $64,700, the highest tenth $129,890, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $61,127 of national purchasing power.
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; Rhode Island then takes its own share, leaving $61,991.
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 49 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 $92,970. 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 ($64,700) and the ninetieth ($129,890) 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 $61,127 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 $61,991 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.