Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary in Florida
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,605
after federal, FICA and Florida tax
Tax takes
$14,255
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,482
Florida costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Florida — 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
$77,860
Kept after tax
$63,605
Worth in national money
$61,482
State rank
40
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in Florida. The middle earner gets $77,860. That is 40 of 45 states, and about 20.61% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Within Florida this is well-paid work. Of 493 occupations with published figures in the state, this job ranks 110 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Florida is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $77,860 the take-home is $63,605; in national-average money that behaves like $61,482. The average comes to $94,480, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For political science teachers, postsecondary, Florida sits in the lower band at $77,860, ranking 40 of 45 and trailing the national median by about 20.61%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Ranked against every occupation Florida publishes a median for, political science teachers, postsecondary sits 110 of 493 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Take-home for political science teachers, postsecondary in Florida, on $77,860, is $63,605; deflated by the state's price level, $61,482. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $94,480 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $52,460 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,860 |
| Top tenth earn over | $163,370 |
| This salary | $77,860 |
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 Florida | $63,605 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,605 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,971 |
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 | $77,860 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,486 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 103 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Florida earn less than $77,860. The published range is $52,460 up to $163,370, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Florida the take-home figure of $63,605, from $77,860, 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 110 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Florida, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $61,482, the adjusted value of that $77,860 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 110 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for political science teachers, postsecondary in Florida the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $52,460 to $163,370. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Florida is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $63,605 from $77,860. 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 110 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Florida, so $61,482 — the adjusted value of that $77,860 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 110 of 493 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 $94,480, 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $52,460 and the top tenth $163,370 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Florida run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $61,482 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $63,605 survives, because Florida levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 Florida is $94,480. 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 ($52,460) and the ninetieth ($163,370) 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?
Florida's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $61,482 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Florida levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $63,605 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.