Public Relations Specialists in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,995
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$11,975
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,449
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$62,970
Kept after tax
$50,995
Worth in national money
$57,449
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Iowa is among the lower-paying states for public relations specialists. The middle earner takes $62,970, ranking 38 of 51 states — about 15.76% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Iowa, this sits in the middle: 193 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $62,970 you keep $50,995 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $57,449 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $68,340, since top earners drag the number up.
- Iowa ranks 38 of 51 for public relations specialists, with a median of $62,970 — about 15.76% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Public relations specialists ranks 193 of 493 occupations in Iowa 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.
- Retained pay in Iowa is $50,995 after the full tax stack, from $62,970. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $57,449 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $68,340 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Public Relations Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,890 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,970 |
| Top tenth earn over | $104,700 |
| This salary | $62,970 |
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 Iowa | $50,995 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,776 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,138 |
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 | $60,753 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,833 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Iowa earn less than $62,970. The published range is $38,890 up to $104,700, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $50,995 take-home in Iowa comes from $62,970. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 193 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Iowa, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $57,449, the adjusted value of that $62,970 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 193 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for public relations specialists in Iowa the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $38,890 to $104,700. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $50,995, from $62,970, assumes a single Iowa filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 193 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Iowa, so $57,449 — the adjusted value of that $62,970 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 193 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 $68,340, 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 $38,890, the highest tenth $104,700, 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 Iowa sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $57,449 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Iowa adds its own income tax on top — which is why $50,995 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Iowa is $68,340. 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 ($38,890) and the ninetieth ($104,700) 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?
Iowa'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 $57,449 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 $50,995 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.