Respiratory Therapists in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$76,915
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$27,905
26.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$68,319
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$104,820
Kept after tax
$76,915
Worth in national money
$68,319
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. California pays respiratory therapists a middle wage of $104,820, ranking 3 of 51 states and sitting about 27.39% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 492 occupations California reports, respiratory therapists comes in at 113 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- California is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $104,820 the take-home is $76,915; in national-average money that behaves like $68,319. The average comes to $109,440, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- California's median for respiratory therapists is $104,820, about 27.39% above the national figure and 3 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.
- Respiratory therapists ranks 113 of 492 occupations by median in California, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Take-home for respiratory therapists in California, on $104,820, is $76,915; deflated by the state's price level, $68,319. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $109,440 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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: Respiratory Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $77,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $104,820 |
| Top tenth earn over | $145,510 |
| This salary | $104,820 |
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 California | $76,915 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $82,571 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$16,652 |
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 | $96,780 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$23,001 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $104,820 as a midpoint for California, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $77,010 and the ninetieth is $145,510 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $76,915 take-home in California comes from $104,820. 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 113 of 492.
- Two cautions on $68,319, the adjusted value of that $104,820 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of California. 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 113 of 492 locally.
- The California median of $104,820 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $77,010 to $145,510. 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 $76,915, from $104,820, assumes a single California 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 113 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 3 of 51 for it.
- This $68,319 adjusted figure, worked from $104,820, 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 113 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 113 of 492 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 $109,440, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $77,010 at the tenth percentile, $145,510 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in California run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $68,319 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $76,915 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 California is $109,440. 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 ($77,010 to $145,510) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to California rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $68,319 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 $76,915 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.