Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$69,999
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$16,951
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$72,034
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$86,950
Kept after tax
$69,999
Worth in national money
$72,034
State rank
23
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Texas pays this job around $86,950 at the midpoint, 23 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Texas. It ranks 93 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $86,950, tax leaves $69,999, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $72,034 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $102,650, since top earners drag the number up.
- For political science teachers, postsecondary the Texas median is $86,950, ranking 23 of 45 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.
- Within Texas, political science teachers, postsecondary ranks 93 of 493 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for political science teachers, postsecondary — median $86,950 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $69,999 retained, $72,034 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $102,650 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $49,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $86,950 |
| Top tenth earn over | $168,900 |
| This salary | $86,950 |
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 Texas | $69,999 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $69,999 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,371 |
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 | $86,950 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$6,427 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
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 political science teachers, postsecondary in Texas earn under $86,950 and half over. The published range runs $49,010 at the tenth percentile to $168,900 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Texas's $69,999, worked from $86,950. 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 93 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $72,034 uses one figure for the whole of Texas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 93.
- Figures are distribution medians for political science teachers, postsecondary in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $49,010 to $168,900; 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.
- The Texas take-home of $69,999, on $86,950 for work ranking 93 of 493 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 93 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $72,034, worked from $86,950, 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 Texas address, on work sitting at 93 of 493 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 $102,650 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $49,010, the highest tenth $168,900, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Texas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $72,034 in national terms.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $69,999 of this wage reaches your account, because Texas takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 45 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 Texas is $102,650. 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 ($49,010) and the ninetieth ($168,900) 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?
Texas'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 $72,034 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $69,999 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.