Health Education Specialists in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,994
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$13,746
21.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,031
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$63,740
Kept after tax
$49,994
Worth in national money
$46,031
State rank
22
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Hawaii pays health education specialists around $63,740 at the midpoint, 22 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Hawaii, this sits in the middle: 214 of 437 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $63,740, tax leaves $49,994 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $46,031 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $65,700, since top earners drag the number up.
- For health education specialists the Hawaii median is $63,740, ranking 22 of 51 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.
- Health education specialists ranks 214 of 437 occupations in Hawaii 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.
- After tax, $49,994 remains from the Hawaii median of $63,740 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $46,031 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $65,700 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Health Education Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,500 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,740 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,130 |
| This salary | $63,740 |
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 Hawaii | $49,994 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,395 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,916 |
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 | $59,507 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,783 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,740 as a midpoint for Hawaii, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,500 and the ninetieth is $99,130 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $49,994 take-home in Hawaii comes from $63,740. 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 214 of 437.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $46,031 uses one figure for the whole of Hawaii. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 437 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 214.
- The Hawaii median of $63,740 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,500 to $99,130. 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 $49,994, from $63,740, assumes a single Hawaii 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 214 of 437 locally, and the state ranks 22 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $46,031, worked from $63,740, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Hawaii address, on work sitting at 214 of 437 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 $65,700 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 $35,500, the highest tenth $99,130, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Hawaii costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $46,031 rather than its face figure.
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; Hawaii then takes its own share, leaving $49,994.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Hawaii is $65,700. 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 ($35,500) and the ninetieth ($99,130) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $46,031 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $49,994 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.