Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,016
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$10,344
17.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,491
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$58,360
Kept after tax
$48,016
Worth in national money
$47,491
State rank
46
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Arizona is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $58,360, ranking 46 of 51 states — about 18.99% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Arizona, this sits in the middle: 249 of 491 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $58,360 the take-home is $48,016, which is worth about $47,491 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $64,440, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Arizona ranks 46 of 51 for secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education, with a median of $58,360 — about 18.99% 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.
- Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education ranks 249 of 491 occupations in Arizona 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.
- Arizona's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education on its $58,360 median: $48,016 retained after tax becomes $47,491 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $64,440 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,240 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $58,360 |
| Top tenth earn over | $93,530 |
| This salary | $58,360 |
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 Arizona | $48,016 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,072 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,008 |
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 | $57,045 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,638 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Arizona earn less than $58,360. The published range is $46,240 up to $93,530, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Arizona's $48,016, worked from $58,360. 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 249 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arizona, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $47,491, the adjusted value of that $58,360 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 249 of 491 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education in Arizona the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $46,240 to $93,530. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Arizona take-home of $48,016, on $58,360 for work ranking 249 of 491 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 249 of 491 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arizona, so $47,491 — the adjusted value of that $58,360 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 249 of 491 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 $64,440 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 $46,240, the highest tenth $93,530, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $47,491 of national purchasing power.
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 Arizona adds its own income tax on top — which is why $48,016 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 Arizona is $64,440. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($46,240) and the ninetieth ($93,530) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $47,491 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 $48,016 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.