Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary in Wyoming
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$68,452
after federal, FICA and Wyoming tax
Tax takes
$16,298
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$75,347
Wyoming costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Wyoming — 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
$84,750
Kept after tax
$68,452
Worth in national money
$75,347
State rank
25
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Wyoming pays this job around $84,750 at the midpoint, 25 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Wyoming. It ranks 81 out of 433 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $84,750 you keep $68,452 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $75,347 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $77,850.
- For political science teachers, postsecondary the Wyoming median is $84,750, ranking 25 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 Wyoming, political science teachers, postsecondary ranks 81 of 433 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.
- Retained pay in Wyoming is $68,452 after the full tax stack, from $84,750. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $75,347 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $77,850 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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 | $47,500 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $84,750 |
| Top tenth earn over | $126,140 |
| This salary | $84,750 |
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 Wyoming | $68,452 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $68,452 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,906 |
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 | $84,750 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$6,776 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $84,750 as a midpoint for Wyoming, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,500 and the ninetieth is $126,140 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Wyoming the take-home figure of $68,452, from $84,750, 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 81 of 433 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Wyoming, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $75,347, the adjusted value of that $84,750 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 81 of 433 in the state.
- The Wyoming median of $84,750 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,500 to $126,140. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Wyoming is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $68,452 from $84,750. 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 81 of 433 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Wyoming, so $75,347 — the adjusted value of that $84,750 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 81 of 433 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 $77,850, 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 $47,500, the highest tenth $126,140, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $75,347.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $68,452 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 Wyoming is $77,850. 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 ($47,500) and the ninetieth ($126,140) 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?
Wyoming'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 $75,347 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?
Wyoming levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $68,452 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.