Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education in Indiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,105
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$11,775
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$54,353
Indiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Indiana — 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
$61,880
Kept after tax
$50,105
Worth in national money
$54,353
State rank
34
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Indiana is 34 of 51 states for this job, with a middle wage of $61,880. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations Indiana reports figures for, this is number 195.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $61,880 you keep $50,105 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $54,353 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $67,640, since top earners drag the number up.
- Indiana ranks 34 of 51 for secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education at $61,880. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- In Indiana's occupational distribution, secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education sits at 195 of 493 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Retained pay in Indiana is $50,105 after the full tax stack, from $61,880. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $54,353 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $67,640 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $48,300 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $95,070 |
| This salary | $61,880 |
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 Indiana | $50,105 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,901 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$943 |
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 | $59,645 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,141 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,880 as a midpoint for Indiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,300 and the ninetieth is $95,070 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Indiana's $50,105, worked from $61,880. 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 195 of 493.
- Two cautions on $54,353, the adjusted value of that $61,880 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Indiana. 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 195 of 493 locally.
- The Indiana median of $61,880 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,300 to $95,070. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Indiana take-home of $50,105, on $61,880 for work ranking 195 of 493 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 195 of 493 in the state.
- This $54,353 adjusted figure, worked from $61,880, 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 195 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 195 of 493 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 $67,640, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $48,300 at the bottom tenth to $95,070 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Indiana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $54,353 in national terms.
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 Indiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $50,105 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 Indiana is $67,640. 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 ($48,300) and the ninetieth ($95,070) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Indiana'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 $54,353 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 $50,105 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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.