Graphic Designers in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,066
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$8,154
17.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,003
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
$46,220
Kept after tax
$38,066
Worth in national money
$44,003
State rank
48
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Arkansas pays graphic designers a middle wage of $46,220, 48 of 51 states and about 26.59% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Arkansas, this sits in the middle: 266 of 489 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 $46,220 you keep $38,066 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $44,003 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $52,670, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arkansas's $46,220 median for graphic designers places it 48 of 51 states, about 26.59% 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.
- Graphic designers ranks 266 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.
- Retained pay in Arkansas is $38,066 after the full tax stack, from $46,220. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $44,003 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $52,670 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Graphic Designers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,570 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,730 |
| This salary | $46,220 |
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 | $38,066 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,318 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,542 |
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 | $44,662 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,284 |
| 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 $46,220. The published range is $31,570 up to $79,730, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $38,066 take-home in Arkansas comes from $46,220. 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 266 of 489.
- Two cautions on $44,003, the adjusted value of that $46,220 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arkansas. 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 266 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for graphic designers in Arkansas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,570 to $79,730. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $38,066, from $46,220, 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 266 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 48 of 51 for it.
- This $44,003 adjusted figure, worked from $46,220, 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 266 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 266 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $52,670, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $31,570, the highest tenth $79,730, 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 Arkansas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $44,003 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $38,066 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $52,670. 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 ($31,570) and the ninetieth ($79,730) 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?
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 $44,003 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 $38,066 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.