Massage Therapists in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,161
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$11,239
18.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,602
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$62,400
Kept after tax
$51,161
Worth in national money
$50,602
State rank
14
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Arizona pays massage therapists a middle wage of $62,400, ranking 14 of 50 states and sitting about 6.76% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Massage therapists ranks 202 among 491 occupations Arizona publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $62,400 the take-home is $51,161, which is worth about $50,602 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $65,250, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Arizona's median for massage therapists is $62,400, about 6.76% above the national figure and 14 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 202 of 491 in Arizona places massage therapists in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Arizona's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for massage therapists on its $62,400 median: $51,161 retained after tax becomes $50,602 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $65,250 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Massage Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $90,780 |
| This salary | $62,400 |
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 Arizona | $51,161 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,318 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,238 |
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 | $60,959 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,916 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 massage therapists in Arizona earn under $62,400 and half over. The published range runs $37,800 at the tenth percentile to $90,780 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $51,161 take-home in Arizona comes from $62,400. 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 202 of 491.
- Two cautions on $50,602, the adjusted value of that $62,400 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arizona. 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 202 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for massage therapists in Arizona, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,800 to $90,780; 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 $51,161, from $62,400, assumes a single Arizona 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 202 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 50 for it.
- This $50,602 adjusted figure, worked from $62,400, 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 202 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 202 of 491 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 $65,250, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $37,800 and the top tenth $90,780 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $50,602 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Arizona adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,161 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Arizona is $65,250. 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 ($37,800) and the ninetieth ($90,780) 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?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $50,602 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 $51,161 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.