Social Workers, All Other in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$58,787
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$16,813
22.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,545
Maryland costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maryland — 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
$75,600
Kept after tax
$58,787
Worth in national money
$56,545
State rank
28
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Maryland pays social workers, all other around $75,600 at the midpoint, 28 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Maryland, this sits in the middle: 186 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $75,600, tax leaves $58,787 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $56,545 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $81,380, since top earners drag the number up.
- For social workers, all other the Maryland median is $75,600, ranking 28 of 50 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.
- Social workers, all other ranks 186 of 489 occupations in Maryland 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.
- After tax, $58,787 remains from the Maryland median of $75,600 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $56,545 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $81,380 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Social Workers, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $75,600 |
| Top tenth earn over | $128,440 |
| This salary | $75,600 |
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 Maryland | $58,787 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,015 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,272 |
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 | $71,012 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,928 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $75,600 as a midpoint for Maryland, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,690 and the ninetieth is $128,440 — 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 Maryland's $58,787, worked from $75,600. 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 186 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maryland, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $56,545, the adjusted value of that $75,600 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 186 of 489 in the state.
- The Maryland median of $75,600 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,690 to $128,440. 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 Maryland take-home of $58,787, on $75,600 for work ranking 186 of 489 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 186 of 489 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maryland, so $56,545 — the adjusted value of that $75,600 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 186 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $81,380, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $48,690, the highest tenth $128,440, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Maryland run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $56,545 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Maryland's own levy, $58,787 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Maryland is $81,380. 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 ($48,690) and the ninetieth ($128,440) 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?
Maryland's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $56,545 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 $58,787 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maryland 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.