Respiratory Therapists in Alabama
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,477
after federal, FICA and Alabama tax
Tax takes
$13,673
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$58,327
Alabama costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Alabama — 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
$66,150
Kept after tax
$52,477
Worth in national money
$58,327
State rank
50
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Alabama is among the lower-paying states for respiratory therapists. The middle earner takes $66,150, ranking 50 of 51 states — about 19.6% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Alabama, this sits in the middle: 141 of 482 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 $66,150 you keep $52,477 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $58,327 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $68,480, since top earners drag the number up.
- Alabama ranks 50 of 51 for respiratory therapists, with a median of $66,150 — about 19.6% 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.
- Respiratory therapists ranks 141 of 482 occupations in Alabama 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 Alabama is $52,477 after the full tax stack, from $66,150. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $58,327 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $68,480 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Respiratory Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,250 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $66,150 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,030 |
| This salary | $66,150 |
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 Alabama | $52,477 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $55,332 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,387 |
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 | $62,597 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,866 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $66,150 as a midpoint for Alabama, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $50,250 and the ninetieth is $81,030 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $52,477 take-home in Alabama comes from $66,150. 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 141 of 482.
- Two cautions on $58,327, the adjusted value of that $66,150 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alabama. 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 141 of 482 locally.
- The Alabama median of $66,150 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $50,250 to $81,030. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $52,477, from $66,150, assumes a single Alabama 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 141 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 50 of 51 for it.
- This $58,327 adjusted figure, worked from $66,150, 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 141 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 141 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $68,480, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $50,250 at the bottom tenth to $81,030 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $58,327.
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 Alabama's own levy, $52,477 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Alabama is $68,480. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($50,250 to $81,030) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alabama rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Alabama'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 $58,327 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 $52,477 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Alabama 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.