Recreational Therapists in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,835
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$12,985
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,042
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
$62,820
Kept after tax
$49,835
Worth in national money
$46,042
State rank
15
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Massachusetts is one of the better-paying states for recreational therapists. The middle earner takes $62,820, which ranks 15 of 48 states with published figures. That is about 1.39% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Recreational therapists ranks 267 among 485 occupations Massachusetts publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $62,820, tax leaves $49,835 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $46,042 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $66,680, since top earners drag the number up.
- Massachusetts ranks 15 of 48 states publishing a median for recreational therapists, at $62,820 — about 1.39% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Position 267 of 485 in Massachusetts places recreational therapists 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 tax, $49,835 remains from the Massachusetts median of $62,820 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $46,042 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $66,680 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Recreational Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,090 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,820 |
| Top tenth earn over | $94,890 |
| This salary | $62,820 |
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 | $49,835 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,656 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,145 |
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 | $59,309 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,850 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $62,820 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,090 and the ninetieth is $94,890 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Massachusetts the take-home figure of $49,835, from $62,820, 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 267 of 485 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $46,042, the adjusted value of that $62,820 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 267 of 485 locally.
- The Massachusetts median of $62,820 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,090 to $94,890. 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 Massachusetts is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $49,835 from $62,820. 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 267 of 485 locally.
- This $46,042 adjusted figure, worked from $62,820, 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 267 of 485 in the state. The occupation ranks 267 of 485 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 $66,680 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 $49,090 and the top tenth $94,890 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $46,042 rather than its face figure.
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 $49,835.
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 48 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 Massachusetts is $66,680. 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 ($49,090) and the ninetieth ($94,890) 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 $46,042 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 $49,835 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.
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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.