Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,290
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$10,050
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,198
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — 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
$54,340
Kept after tax
$44,290
Worth in national money
$51,198
State rank
48
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Arkansas pays this job a middle wage of $54,340, 48 of 48 states and about 32.02% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Arkansas, this sits in the middle: 191 of 489 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 $54,340 you keep $44,290 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $51,198 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $59,740, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arkansas's $54,340 median for mathematical science teachers, postsecondary places it 48 of 48 states, about 32.02% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Mathematical science teachers, postsecondary ranks 191 of 489 occupations in Arkansas 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 Arkansas is $44,290 after the full tax stack, from $54,340. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $51,198 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $59,740 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,250 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $54,340 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,860 |
| This salary | $54,340 |
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 Arkansas | $44,290 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,842 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,023 |
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 | $52,408 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,865 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Arkansas earn less than $54,340. The published range is $37,250 up to $77,860, 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 Arkansas's $44,290, worked from $54,340. 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 191 of 489.
- Two cautions on $51,198, the adjusted value of that $54,340 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arkansas. 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 191 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for mathematical science teachers, postsecondary in Arkansas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,250 to $77,860. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Arkansas take-home of $44,290, on $54,340 for work ranking 191 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 191 of 489 in the state.
- This $51,198 adjusted figure, worked from $54,340, 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 191 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 191 of 489 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 $59,740, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,250, the highest tenth $77,860, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Arkansas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $51,198 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Arkansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $44,290 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 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 Arkansas is $59,740. 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 ($37,250) and the ninetieth ($77,860) 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?
Arkansas'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 $51,198 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 $44,290 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.