Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,851
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$12,049
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$58,782
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — 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
$62,900
Kept after tax
$50,851
Worth in national money
$58,782
State rank
43
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Arkansas pays this job a middle wage of $62,900, 43 of 45 states and about 20.73% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Arkansas, this sits in the middle: 129 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Arkansas is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $62,900 the take-home is $50,851; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $58,782 would nationally. The average comes to $68,500, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Arkansas's $62,900 median for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary places it 43 of 45 states, about 20.73% 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.
- Foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary ranks 129 of 489 occupations in Arkansas 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.
- Post-tax income for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary in Arkansas, on $62,900, is $50,851 — equivalent to $58,782 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 $68,500 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,300 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,130 |
| This salary | $62,900 |
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 Arkansas | $50,851 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,720 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,530 |
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 | $60,574 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,745 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Arkansas earn less than $62,900. The published range is $45,300 up to $82,130, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $50,851 take-home in Arkansas comes from $62,900. 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 129 of 489.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $58,782 uses one figure for the whole of Arkansas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 489 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 129.
- Reported values are medians; for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary in Arkansas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $45,300 to $82,130. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $50,851, from $62,900, assumes a single Arkansas 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 129 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 43 of 45 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $58,782, worked from $62,900, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Arkansas address, on work sitting at 129 of 489 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 $68,500, 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?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $45,300 and the top tenth $82,130, so most people doing this work in Arkansas sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $58,782.
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 Arkansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $50,851 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 Arkansas is $68,500. 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 ($45,300 to $82,130) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arkansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Arkansas'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 $58,782 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 $50,851 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.