Respiratory Therapists in North Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,651
after federal, FICA and North Dakota tax
Tax takes
$15,579
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$74,121
North Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Dakota — 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
$81,230
Kept after tax
$65,651
Worth in national money
$74,121
State rank
25
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. North Dakota pays respiratory therapists around $81,230 at the midpoint, 25 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Within North Dakota this is well-paid work. Of 460 occupations with published figures in the state, respiratory therapists ranks 97 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $81,230 you keep $65,651 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $74,121 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $84,710, since top earners drag the number up.
- For respiratory therapists the North Dakota median is $81,230, ranking 25 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Ranked against every occupation North Dakota publishes a median for, respiratory therapists sits 97 of 460 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Retained pay in North Dakota is $65,651 after the full tax stack, from $81,230. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $74,121 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $84,710 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Respiratory Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $65,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $81,230 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,490 |
| This salary | $81,230 |
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 North Dakota | $65,651 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,975 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$6,228 |
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 | $80,768 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$8,603 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in North Dakota earn less than $81,230. The published range is $65,770 up to $100,490, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $65,651 take-home in North Dakota comes from $81,230. 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 97 of 460.
- Two cautions on $74,121, the adjusted value of that $81,230 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Dakota. 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 97 of 460 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for respiratory therapists in North Dakota the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $65,770 to $100,490. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $65,651, from $81,230, assumes a single North Dakota 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 97 of 460 locally, and the state ranks 25 of 51 for it.
- This $74,121 adjusted figure, worked from $81,230, 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 97 of 460 in the state. The occupation ranks 97 of 460 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 $84,710 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $65,770 at the tenth percentile, $100,490 at the ninetieth.
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 $74,121.
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 North Dakota adds its own income tax on top — which is why $65,651 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 North Dakota is $84,710. 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 ($65,770 to $100,490) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to North Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
North Dakota'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 $74,121 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 $65,651 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Dakota 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.