Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$60,058
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$16,372
21.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,797
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$76,430
Kept after tax
$60,058
Worth in national money
$63,797
State rank
36
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. North Carolina pays this job a middle wage of $76,430, 36 of 46 states and about 9.32% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in North Carolina. It ranks 121 out of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $76,430 you keep $60,058 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $63,797 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $82,130, since top earners drag the number up.
- North Carolina's $76,430 median for sociology teachers, postsecondary places it 36 of 46 states, about 9.32% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Within North Carolina, sociology teachers, postsecondary ranks 121 of 489 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Retained pay in North Carolina is $60,058 after the full tax stack, from $76,430. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $63,797 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $82,130 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $76,430 |
| Top tenth earn over | $109,850 |
| This salary | $76,430 |
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 North Carolina | $60,058 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $62,599 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$622 |
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 | $72,818 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$859 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $76,430 as a midpoint for North Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,470 and the ninetieth is $109,850 — 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 North Carolina's $60,058, worked from $76,430. 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 121 of 489.
- Two cautions on $63,797, the adjusted value of that $76,430 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Carolina. 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 121 of 489 locally.
- The North Carolina median of $76,430 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,470 to $109,850. 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 North Carolina take-home of $60,058, on $76,430 for work ranking 121 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 121 of 489 in the state.
- This $63,797 adjusted figure, worked from $76,430, 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 121 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 121 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 $82,130, 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 $45,470, the highest tenth $109,850, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $63,797.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; North Carolina then takes its own share, leaving $60,058.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 North Carolina is $82,130. 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 ($45,470) and the ninetieth ($109,850) 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?
North Carolina'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 $63,797 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 $60,058 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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.