Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$71,757
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$25,213
26.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$73,903
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$96,970
Kept after tax
$71,757
Worth in national money
$73,903
State rank
5
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Maine is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $96,970, which ranks 5 of 45 states with published figures. That is about 22.21% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 484 occupations Maine reports, this job comes in at 68 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $96,970, tax leaves $71,757, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $73,903 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $98,500, since top earners drag the number up.
- Maine ranks 5 of 45 states publishing a median for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary, at $96,970 — about 22.21% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary ranks 68 of 484 occupations by median in Maine, 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.
- Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary — median $96,970 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $71,757 retained, $73,903 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $98,500 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: Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $58,280 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $96,970 |
| Top tenth earn over | $151,460 |
| This salary | $96,970 |
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 Maine | $71,757 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $77,048 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,386 |
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 | $89,449 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,439 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $96,970 as a midpoint for Maine, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $58,280 and the ninetieth is $151,460 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $71,757 take-home in Maine comes from $96,970. 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 68 of 484.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maine, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $73,903, the adjusted value of that $96,970 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 68 of 484 in the state.
- The Maine median of $96,970 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $58,280 to $151,460. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $71,757, from $96,970, assumes a single Maine 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 68 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 5 of 45 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maine, so $73,903 — the adjusted value of that $96,970 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 68 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $58,280 at the bottom tenth to $151,460 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Maine is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $73,903 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Maine's own levy, $71,757 remains.
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 45 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($58,280) and the ninetieth ($151,460) 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?
Maine'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 $73,903 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 $71,757 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.