Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,281
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$15,979
21.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,972
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$75,260
Kept after tax
$59,281
Worth in national money
$62,972
State rank
41
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in North Carolina. The middle earner gets $75,260. That is 41 of 50 states, and about 6.32% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 129 among 489 occupations North Carolina publishes pay for.
- Here is where North Carolina does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $75,260 you keep $59,281, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $62,972 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $80,900, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For psychology teachers, postsecondary, North Carolina sits in the lower band at $75,260, ranking 41 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 6.32%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Position 129 of 489 in North Carolina places psychology teachers, postsecondary in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After federal, FICA and North Carolina income tax, retained pay for psychology teachers, postsecondary on $75,260 is $59,281. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $62,972 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $80,900 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,820 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,260 |
| Top tenth earn over | $109,840 |
| This salary | $75,260 |
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 North Carolina | $59,281 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,775 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$599 |
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 | $71,715 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$828 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $75,260 as a midpoint for North Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,820 and the ninetieth is $109,840 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In North Carolina the take-home figure of $59,281, from $75,260, 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 129 of 489 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of North Carolina, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $62,972, the adjusted value of that $75,260 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 129 of 489 in the state.
- The North Carolina median of $75,260 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,820 to $109,840. 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 North Carolina is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $59,281 from $75,260. 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 129 of 489 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for North Carolina, so $62,972 — the adjusted value of that $75,260 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 129 of 489 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 $80,900 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $49,820 and the top tenth $109,840 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. North Carolina is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $62,972 in national terms.
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 North Carolina's own levy, $59,281 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 North Carolina is $80,900. 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 ($49,820) and the ninetieth ($109,840) 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?
North Carolina'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 $62,972 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 $59,281 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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.