Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education in New York

Books, colored pencils and a globe in a bright classroom.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$59,848

after federal, FICA and New York tax

Tax takes

$17,782

22.9% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$55,607

New York costs more than average

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

$77,630

Kept after tax

$59,848

Worth in national money

$55,607

State rank

7

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for this job is strong here. New York's middle earner gets $77,630, putting the state 7 of 50 — about 23.85% ahead of the national figure.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations New York reports figures for, this is number 204.
  • New York is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $77,630 the take-home is $59,848; in national-average money that behaves like $55,607. The average comes to $86,620, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
  • For kindergarten teachers, except special education, New York sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $77,630, ranking 7 of 50 and running about 23.85% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
  • In New York's occupational distribution, kindergarten teachers, except special education sits at 204 of 493 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
  • Take-home for kindergarten teachers, except special education in New York, on $77,630, is $59,848; deflated by the state's price level, $55,607. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $86,620 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$49,020
Half earn under$77,630
Top tenth earn over$137,710
This salary$77,630

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

Compare with
+$3,595take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in New York$59,848
Take-home in Texas$63,443
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$9,680

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

Moving to
$0now · $77,630$64,538
$64,538in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$72,520
You could take a cut of−$13,092
Prices in Texas97 vs 108

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of kindergarten teachers, except special education in New York earn under $77,630 and half over. The published range runs $49,020 at the tenth percentile to $137,710 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • That $59,848 take-home in New York comes from $77,630. 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 204 of 493.
  • Two cautions on $55,607, the adjusted value of that $77,630 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New York. 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 204 of 493 locally.
  • Figures are distribution medians for kindergarten teachers, except special education in New York, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $49,020 to $137,710; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
  • Retained pay of $59,848, from $77,630, assumes a single New York 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 204 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 7 of 50 for it.
  • This $55,607 adjusted figure, worked from $77,630, 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 204 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 204 of 493 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 $86,620 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?

The label is broader than the work. From $49,020 at the bottom tenth to $137,710 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

Not on its own. Prices in New York run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $55,607 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.

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 New York's own levy, $59,848 remains.

Why is this job missing from some states?

Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.

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 New York is $86,620. 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 ($49,020) and the ninetieth ($137,710) 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?

New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $55,607 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 $59,848 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.