Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses in Maine

A stethoscope and folded scrubs in a sunlit clinical workspace.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$56,705

after federal, FICA and Maine tax

Tax takes

$16,495

22.5% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$58,401

Maine costs less 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

$73,200

Kept after tax

$56,705

Worth in national money

$58,401

State rank

16

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • This is a good state for the work. Maine pays this job a middle wage of $73,200, ranking 16 of 51 states and sitting about 13.66% above the national middle.
  • Against other work in Maine, this sits in the middle: 153 of 484 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $73,200, tax leaves $56,705, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $58,401 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $72,110.
  • Maine's median for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses is $73,200, about 13.66% above the national figure and 16 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
  • Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses ranks 153 of 484 occupations in Maine 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.
  • Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses — median $73,200 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $56,705 retained, $58,401 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $72,110 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$56,160
Half earn under$73,200
Top tenth earn over$82,600
This salary$73,200

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
+$3,621take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Maine$56,705
Take-home in Texas$60,326
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$3,679

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 · $73,200$68,118
$68,118in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$68,053
You could take a cut of−$5,082
Prices in Texas97 vs 97

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

Sources and assumptions
  • Half the people doing this work in Maine earn less than $73,200. The published range is $56,160 up to $82,600, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • In Maine the take-home figure of $56,705, from $73,200, 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 153 of 484 occupations here.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $58,401 uses one figure for the whole of Maine. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 153.
  • Reported values are medians; for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses in Maine the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $56,160 to $82,600. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • Take-home for Maine is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $56,705 from $73,200. 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 153 of 484 locally.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $58,401, worked from $73,200, 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 Maine address, on work sitting at 153 of 484 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $56,160 and the top tenth $82,600, so most people doing this work in Maine sit within a fairly tight band.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Maine sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $58,401 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.

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; Maine then takes its own share, leaving $56,705.

Can I compare this job across every state?

All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($56,160 to $82,600) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Maine'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 $58,401 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 $56,705 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.