Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary in Indiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,133
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$15,457
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$64,147
Indiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Indiana — 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
$74,590
Kept after tax
$59,133
Worth in national money
$64,147
State rank
32
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Indiana. The middle earner gets $74,590. That is 32 of 45 states, and about 6% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 132 among 493 occupations Indiana publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $74,590 you keep $59,133 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $64,147 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $82,240, since top earners drag the number up.
- For foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary, Indiana sits in the lower band at $74,590, ranking 32 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 6%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 132 of 493 in Indiana places foreign language and literature 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.
- Retained pay in Indiana is $59,133 after the full tax stack, from $74,590. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $64,147 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $82,240 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,840 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $130,970 |
| This salary | $74,590 |
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 Indiana | $59,133 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,304 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,061 |
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 | $71,504 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,465 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Indiana earn less than $74,590. The published range is $49,840 up to $130,970, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Indiana's $59,133, worked from $74,590. 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 132 of 493.
- Two cautions on $64,147, the adjusted value of that $74,590 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Indiana. 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 132 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary in Indiana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,840 to $130,970. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Indiana take-home of $59,133, on $74,590 for work ranking 132 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 132 of 493 in the state.
- This $64,147 adjusted figure, worked from $74,590, 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 132 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 132 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 $82,240, 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $49,840 and the top tenth $130,970 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Indiana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $64,147 in national terms.
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; Indiana then takes its own share, leaving $59,133.
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 Indiana is $82,240. 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 ($49,840) and the ninetieth ($130,970) 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?
Indiana'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 $64,147 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 $59,133 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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.