Massage Therapists in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,058
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$11,992
19.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,552
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$62,050
Kept after tax
$50,058
Worth in national money
$54,552
State rank
19
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Missouri pays massage therapists around $62,050 at the midpoint, 19 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Massage therapists ranks 185 among 488 occupations Missouri publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $62,050 you keep $50,058 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $54,552 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $67,760, since top earners drag the number up.
- For massage therapists the Missouri median is $62,050, ranking 19 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 185 of 488 in Missouri 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.
- Retained pay in Missouri is $50,058 after the full tax stack, from $62,050. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $54,552 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $67,760 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Massage Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,680 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $101,900 |
| This salary | $62,050 |
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 Missouri | $50,058 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,037 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,002 |
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 | $59,587 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,212 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
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 Missouri earn under $62,050 and half over. The published range runs $43,680 at the tenth percentile to $101,900 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Missouri the take-home figure of $50,058, from $62,050, 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 185 of 488 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $54,552 uses one figure for the whole of Missouri. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 488 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 185.
- Figures are distribution medians for massage therapists in Missouri, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $43,680 to $101,900; 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.
- Take-home for Missouri is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $50,058 from $62,050. 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 185 of 488 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $54,552, worked from $62,050, 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 Missouri address, on work sitting at 185 of 488 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 $67,760 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 $43,680 and the top tenth $101,900 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Missouri is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $54,552 in national terms.
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 Missouri's own levy, $50,058 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Missouri is $67,760. 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 ($43,680) and the ninetieth ($101,900) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri'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 $54,552 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 $50,058 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.