Massage Therapists in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,620
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$12,650
20.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,727
Maryland costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maryland — 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
$62,270
Kept after tax
$49,620
Worth in national money
$47,727
State rank
15
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for massage therapists is strong here. Maryland's middle earner gets $62,270, putting the state 15 of 50 — about 6.54% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Massage therapists ranks 248 among 489 occupations Maryland publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $62,270, tax leaves $49,620 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $47,727 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $65,420, since top earners drag the number up.
- For massage therapists, Maryland sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $62,270, ranking 15 of 50 and running about 6.54% 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.
- Position 248 of 489 in Maryland 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.
- After tax, $49,620 remains from the Maryland median of $62,270 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $47,727 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $65,420 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Massage Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,270 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,440 |
| This salary | $62,270 |
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 Maryland | $49,620 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,214 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,005 |
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 | $59,041 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,262 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Maryland earn less than $62,270. The published range is $35,360 up to $96,440, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Maryland's $49,620, worked from $62,270. 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 248 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maryland, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $47,727, the adjusted value of that $62,270 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 248 of 489 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for massage therapists in Maryland the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,360 to $96,440. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Maryland take-home of $49,620, on $62,270 for work ranking 248 of 489 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 248 of 489 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maryland, so $47,727 — the adjusted value of that $62,270 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 248 of 489 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 $65,420 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $35,360 and the top tenth $96,440 — 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. Maryland costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $47,727 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 Maryland adds its own income tax on top — which is why $49,620 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 Maryland is $65,420. 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 ($35,360) and the ninetieth ($96,440) 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?
Maryland's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $47,727 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 $49,620 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maryland 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.