Public Relations Specialists in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,208
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$18,452
23.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,549
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$79,660
Kept after tax
$61,208
Worth in national money
$56,549
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Massachusetts pays public relations specialists a middle wage of $79,660, ranking 9 of 51 states and sitting about 6.57% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Massachusetts, this sits in the middle: 187 of 485 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $79,660, tax leaves $61,208 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $56,549 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $90,400, since top earners drag the number up.
- Massachusetts's median for public relations specialists is $79,660, about 6.57% above the national figure and 9 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Public relations specialists ranks 187 of 485 occupations in Massachusetts 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.
- After tax, $61,208 remains from the Massachusetts median of $79,660 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $56,549 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $90,400 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Public Relations Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,710 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,660 |
| Top tenth earn over | $139,240 |
| This salary | $79,660 |
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 Massachusetts | $61,208 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,871 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,207 |
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 | $74,453 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,983 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
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 public relations specialists in Massachusetts earn under $79,660 and half over. The published range runs $51,710 at the tenth percentile to $139,240 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 Massachusetts's $61,208, worked from $79,660. 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 187 of 485.
- Two cautions on $56,549, the adjusted value of that $79,660 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Massachusetts. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 187 of 485 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for public relations specialists in Massachusetts, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $51,710 to $139,240; 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 Massachusetts take-home of $61,208, on $79,660 for work ranking 187 of 485 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 187 of 485 in the state.
- This $56,549 adjusted figure, worked from $79,660, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 187 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 187 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $90,400, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $51,710, the highest tenth $139,240, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $56,549 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Massachusetts then takes its own share, leaving $61,208.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 Massachusetts is $90,400. 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 ($51,710) and the ninetieth ($139,240) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $56,549 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $61,208 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.