Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,148
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$17,202
22.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,160
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$78,350
Kept after tax
$61,148
Worth in national money
$56,160
State rank
30
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. New Jersey pays this job around $78,350 at the midpoint, 30 of 46 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 191 among 490 occupations New Jersey publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $78,350, tax leaves $61,148 — and because New Jersey is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $56,160 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $86,430, since top earners drag the number up.
- For sociology teachers, postsecondary the New Jersey median is $78,350, ranking 30 of 46 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.
- Position 191 of 490 in New Jersey places sociology teachers, postsecondary 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.
- After tax, $61,148 remains from the New Jersey median of $78,350 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $56,160 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $86,430 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $78,350 |
| Top tenth earn over | $156,300 |
| This salary | $78,350 |
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 New Jersey | $61,148 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,949 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,649 |
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 | $74,369 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,144 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of sociology teachers, postsecondary in New Jersey earn under $78,350 and half over. The published range runs $32,220 at the tenth percentile to $156,300 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In New Jersey the take-home figure of $61,148, from $78,350, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 191 of 490 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $56,160, the adjusted value of that $78,350 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Jersey. 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 191 of 490 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for sociology teachers, postsecondary in New Jersey, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $32,220 to $156,300; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for New Jersey is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $61,148 from $78,350. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 191 of 490 locally.
- This $56,160 adjusted figure, worked from $78,350, 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 191 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 191 of 490 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 $86,430 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $32,220 and the top tenth $156,300 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. New Jersey costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $56,160 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 New Jersey's own levy, $61,148 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 46 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 New Jersey is $86,430. 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 ($32,220) and the ninetieth ($156,300) 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?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $56,160 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 $61,148 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.