Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,895
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$10,005
19.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,454
Alabama costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alabama — 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
$50,900
Kept after tax
$40,895
Worth in national money
$45,454
State rank
46
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Alabama pays this job a middle wage of $50,900, 46 of 50 states and about 18.79% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Alabama, this sits in the middle: 244 of 482 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 $50,900 you keep $40,895 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $45,454 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $53,360, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alabama's $50,900 median for kindergarten teachers, except special education places it 46 of 50 states, about 18.79% 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.
- Kindergarten teachers, except special education ranks 244 of 482 occupations in Alabama 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 Alabama is $40,895 after the full tax stack, from $50,900. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $45,454 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $53,360 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $67,510 |
| This salary | $50,900 |
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 Alabama | $40,895 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,078 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,123 |
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 | $48,182 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,358 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Alabama earn less than $50,900. The published range is $37,400 up to $67,510, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Alabama the take-home figure of $40,895, from $50,900, 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 244 of 482 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $45,454, the adjusted value of that $50,900 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alabama. 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 244 of 482 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for kindergarten teachers, except special education in Alabama the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,400 to $67,510. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Alabama is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $40,895 from $50,900. 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 244 of 482 locally.
- This $45,454 adjusted figure, worked from $50,900, 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 244 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 244 of 482 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 $53,360, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $37,400 and the top tenth $67,510, so most people doing this work in Alabama sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Alabama sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $45,454 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Alabama's own levy, $40,895 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Alabama is $53,360. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($37,400 to $67,510) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alabama rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Alabama'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 $45,454 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 $40,895 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.