Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,777
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$16,433
21.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,335
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$77,210
Kept after tax
$60,777
Worth in national money
$62,335
State rank
24
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays this job around $77,210 at the midpoint, 24 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Pennsylvania, this sits in the middle: 138 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Pennsylvania costs about what the country costs, so from $77,210, take-home of $60,777 is worth roughly $62,335 in national money. The average comes to $82,320, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary the Pennsylvania median is $77,210, ranking 24 of 45 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.
- Foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary ranks 138 of 492 occupations in Pennsylvania 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.
- Price parity in Pennsylvania is near the national base, so for foreign language and literature teachers, postsecondary, whose median is $77,210, the adjusted figure of $62,335 differs little from $60,777 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $82,320 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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 | $47,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $120,290 |
| This salary | $77,210 |
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 Pennsylvania | $60,777 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,147 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,648 |
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 | $73,841 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,657 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $77,210 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,360 and the ninetieth is $120,290 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Pennsylvania's $60,777, worked from $77,210. 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 138 of 492.
- Two cautions on $62,335, the adjusted value of that $77,210 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Pennsylvania. 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 138 of 492 locally.
- The Pennsylvania median of $77,210 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,360 to $120,290. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Pennsylvania take-home of $60,777, on $77,210 for work ranking 138 of 492 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 138 of 492 in the state.
- This $62,335 adjusted figure, worked from $77,210, 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 138 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 138 of 492 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 $82,320 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 $47,360, the highest tenth $120,290, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $62,335.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $60,777 remains.
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 Pennsylvania is $82,320. 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 ($47,360) and the ninetieth ($120,290) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $62,335 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 $60,777 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.