Recreational Therapists in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,463
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$11,157
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,724
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — 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
$58,620
Kept after tax
$47,463
Worth in national money
$51,724
State rank
25
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Missouri is 25 of 48 states for recreational therapists, with a middle wage of $58,620. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Missouri, this sits in the middle: 236 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Missouri does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $58,620 you keep $47,463, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $51,724 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $62,160, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Missouri ranks 25 of 48 for recreational therapists at $58,620. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Recreational therapists ranks 236 of 488 occupations in Missouri 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 federal, FICA and Missouri income tax, retained pay for recreational therapists on $58,620 is $47,463. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $51,724 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 $62,160 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Recreational Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,000 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,620 |
| Top tenth earn over | $93,500 |
| This salary | $58,620 |
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 Missouri | $47,463 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,281 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,011 |
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 | $56,358 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,222 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $58,620 as a midpoint for Missouri, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $43,000 and the ninetieth is $93,500 — 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 Missouri's $47,463, worked from $58,620. 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 236 of 488.
- Two cautions on $51,724, the adjusted value of that $58,620 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Missouri. 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 236 of 488 locally.
- The Missouri median of $58,620 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $43,000 to $93,500. 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 Missouri take-home of $47,463, on $58,620 for work ranking 236 of 488 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 236 of 488 in the state.
- This $51,724 adjusted figure, worked from $58,620, 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 236 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 236 of 488 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 $62,160 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 $43,000, the highest tenth $93,500, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $51,724.
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 Missouri adds its own income tax on top — which is why $47,463 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 48 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 Missouri is $62,160. 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 ($43,000) and the ninetieth ($93,500) 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?
Missouri'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 $51,724 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 $47,463 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri 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.