Occupational Therapy Assistants in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$58,971
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$15,989
21.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,160
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$74,960
Kept after tax
$58,971
Worth in national money
$54,160
State rank
13
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. New Jersey's middle earner gets $74,960, putting the state 13 of 50 — about 3.68% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in New Jersey, this sits in the middle: 221 of 490 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $74,960 the take-home is $58,971. But New Jersey costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $54,160 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $77,640, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For occupational therapy assistants, New Jersey sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $74,960, ranking 13 of 50 and running about 3.68% 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.
- Occupational therapy assistants ranks 221 of 490 occupations in New Jersey 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 after federal, FICA and New Jersey income tax is $58,971 for occupational therapy assistants, from $74,960. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $54,160. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $77,640 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Occupational Therapy Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $65,550 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,960 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,700 |
| This salary | $74,960 |
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 New Jersey | $58,971 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,564 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,195 |
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 | $71,273 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$12,173 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in New Jersey earn less than $74,960. The published range is $65,550 up to $100,700, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $58,971 take-home in New Jersey comes from $74,960. 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 221 of 490.
- Two cautions on $54,160, the adjusted value of that $74,960 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Jersey. 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 221 of 490 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for occupational therapy assistants in New Jersey the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $65,550 to $100,700. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $58,971, from $74,960, assumes a single New Jersey 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 221 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 13 of 50 for it.
- This $54,160 adjusted figure, worked from $74,960, 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 221 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 221 of 490 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 $77,640 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $65,550 at the bottom tenth to $100,700 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. New Jersey costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $54,160 rather than its face figure.
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 New Jersey's own levy, $58,971 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 New Jersey is $77,640. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($65,550 to $100,700) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Jersey rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $54,160 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 $58,971 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.