Respiratory Therapists in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$67,125
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$19,775
22.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$66,191
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$86,900
Kept after tax
$67,125
Worth in national money
$66,191
State rank
14
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Rhode Island pays respiratory therapists a middle wage of $86,900, ranking 14 of 51 states and sitting about 5.61% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Respiratory therapists ranks 124 among 452 occupations Rhode Island publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $86,900, tax leaves $67,125, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $66,191 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $93,410, since top earners drag the number up.
- Rhode Island's median for respiratory therapists is $86,900, about 5.61% above the national figure and 14 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.
- Position 124 of 452 in Rhode Island places respiratory 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.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for respiratory therapists — median $86,900 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $67,125 retained, $66,191 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $93,410 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 | $73,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $86,900 |
| Top tenth earn over | $122,120 |
| This salary | $86,900 |
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 Rhode Island | $67,125 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $69,964 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,807 |
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 | $82,865 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,022 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $86,900 as a midpoint for Rhode Island, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $73,240 and the ninetieth is $122,120 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $67,125 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $86,900. 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 124 of 452.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $66,191 uses one figure for the whole of Rhode Island. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 452 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 124.
- The Rhode Island median of $86,900 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $73,240 to $122,120. 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 $67,125, from $86,900, assumes a single Rhode Island 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 124 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $66,191, worked from $86,900, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Rhode Island address, on work sitting at 124 of 452 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 $93,410 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 — $73,240 at the tenth percentile, $122,120 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $66,191 rather than its face figure.
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 Rhode Island's own levy, $67,125 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 Rhode Island is $93,410. 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 ($73,240 to $122,120) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $66,191 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 $67,125 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.