Marriage and Family Therapists in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,203
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$9,787
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,685
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
$49,990
Kept after tax
$40,203
Worth in national money
$44,685
State rank
39
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for marriage and family therapists is on the low side in Alabama. The middle earner gets $49,990. That is 39 of 45 states, and about 25.32% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in Alabama, this sits in the middle: 251 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 $49,990 you keep $40,203 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $44,685 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $54,170, since top earners drag the number up.
- For marriage and family therapists, Alabama sits in the lower band at $49,990, ranking 39 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 25.32%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Marriage and family therapists ranks 251 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 $40,203 after the full tax stack, from $49,990. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $44,685 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $54,170 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Marriage and Family Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,250 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,100 |
| This salary | $49,990 |
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 | $40,203 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,347 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,107 |
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 | $47,322 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,339 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $49,990 as a midpoint for Alabama, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $40,250 and the ninetieth is $75,100 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Alabama's $40,203, worked from $49,990. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 251 of 482.
- One number stands for prices across all of Alabama, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $44,685, the adjusted value of that $49,990 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 251 of 482 in the state.
- The Alabama median of $49,990 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $40,250 to $75,100. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Alabama take-home of $40,203, on $49,990 for work ranking 251 of 482 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 251 of 482 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alabama, so $44,685 — the adjusted value of that $49,990 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 251 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $54,170, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $40,250 and the top tenth $75,100, 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 $44,685 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; Alabama then takes its own share, leaving $40,203.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $54,170. 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 ($40,250 to $75,100) 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 $44,685 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 $40,203 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.