Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary in Oklahoma
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,389
after federal, FICA and Oklahoma tax
Tax takes
$12,191
19.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,942
Oklahoma costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Oklahoma — 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
$61,580
Kept after tax
$49,389
Worth in national money
$55,942
State rank
44
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Oklahoma pays this job a middle wage of $61,580, 44 of 45 states and about 22.39% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Oklahoma, this sits in the middle: 174 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $61,580 you keep $49,389 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $55,942 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $58,950.
- Oklahoma's $61,580 median for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary places it 44 of 45 states, about 22.39% 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 174 of 492 occupations in Oklahoma 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.
- Retained pay in Oklahoma is $49,389 after the full tax stack, from $61,580. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $55,942 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $58,950 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,640 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,580 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,940 |
| This salary | $61,580 |
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 Oklahoma | $49,389 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,660 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,781 |
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 | $58,754 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,363 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,580 as a midpoint for Oklahoma, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,640 and the ninetieth is $79,940 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Oklahoma the take-home figure of $49,389, from $61,580, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 174 of 492 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $55,942, the adjusted value of that $61,580 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Oklahoma. 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 174 of 492 locally.
- The Oklahoma median of $61,580 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,640 to $79,940. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Oklahoma is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $49,389 from $61,580. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 174 of 492 locally.
- This $55,942 adjusted figure, worked from $61,580, 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 174 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 174 of 492 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 $58,950, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $34,640, the highest tenth $79,940, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Oklahoma sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $55,942 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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; Oklahoma then takes its own share, leaving $49,389.
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 Oklahoma is $58,950. 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 ($34,640) and the ninetieth ($79,940) 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?
Oklahoma'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 $55,942 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 $49,389 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Oklahoma 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.