Nursing Assistants in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,144
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$8,926
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,284
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$47,070
Kept after tax
$38,144
Worth in national money
$39,284
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for nursing assistants is strong here. Maine's middle earner gets $47,070, putting the state 9 of 51 — about 11.38% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 484 occupations Maine publishes, nursing assistants lands at 368. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $47,070, tax leaves $38,144, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $39,284 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $47,510, since top earners drag the number up.
- For nursing assistants, Maine sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $47,070, ranking 9 of 51 and running about 11.38% 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.
- Within Maine, this work ranks 368 of 484 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for nursing assistants — median $47,070 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $38,144 retained, $39,284 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $47,510 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Nursing Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,120 |
| This salary | $47,070 |
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 Maine | $38,144 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,001 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,880 |
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 | $44,759 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,273 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,070 as a midpoint for Maine, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $39,100 and the ninetieth is $58,120 — 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 Maine's $38,144, worked from $47,070. 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 368 of 484.
- Two cautions on $39,284, the adjusted value of that $47,070 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Maine. 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 368 of 484 locally.
- The Maine median of $47,070 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $39,100 to $58,120. 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 Maine take-home of $38,144, on $47,070 for work ranking 368 of 484 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 368 of 484 in the state.
- This $39,284 adjusted figure, worked from $47,070, 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 368 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 368 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $39,100 at the tenth percentile, $58,120 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Maine sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $39,284 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 Maine adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,144 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($39,100 to $58,120) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Maine'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 $39,284 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 $38,144 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.