Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,936
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$16,024
21.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,473
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$75,960
Kept after tax
$59,936
Worth in national money
$61,473
State rank
39
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Pennsylvania pays this job a middle wage of $75,960, 39 of 50 states and about 5.45% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Pennsylvania, this sits in the middle: 146 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $75,960 the take-home is $59,936, which is worth about $61,473 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $81,800, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Pennsylvania's $75,960 median for psychology teachers, postsecondary places it 39 of 50 states, about 5.45% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Psychology teachers, postsecondary ranks 146 of 492 occupations in Pennsylvania 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.
- Pennsylvania's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for psychology teachers, postsecondary on its $75,960 median: $59,936 retained after tax becomes $61,473 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $81,800 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,750 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,960 |
| Top tenth earn over | $124,090 |
| This salary | $75,960 |
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 Pennsylvania | $59,936 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,268 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,605 |
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 | $72,645 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,599 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $75,960 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,750 and the ninetieth is $124,090 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Pennsylvania's $59,936, worked from $75,960. 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 146 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of Pennsylvania, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $61,473, the adjusted value of that $75,960 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 146 of 492 in the state.
- The Pennsylvania median of $75,960 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,750 to $124,090. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Pennsylvania take-home of $59,936, on $75,960 for work ranking 146 of 492 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 146 of 492 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Pennsylvania, so $61,473 — the adjusted value of that $75,960 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 146 of 492 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 $81,800 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 $47,750, the highest tenth $124,090, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Pennsylvania sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $61,473 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Pennsylvania's own levy, $59,936 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 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 Pennsylvania is $81,800. 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 ($47,750) and the ninetieth ($124,090) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $61,473 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 $59,936 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.