Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$81,984
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$29,116
26.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$78,857
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
$111,100
Kept after tax
$81,984
Worth in national money
$78,857
State rank
9
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Maryland's middle earner gets $111,100, putting the state 9 of 46 — about 6.52% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 489 occupations Maryland reports, this job comes in at 66 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $111,100, tax leaves $81,984 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $78,857 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $123,410, since top earners drag the number up.
- For software quality assurance analysts and testers, Maryland sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $111,100, ranking 9 of 46 and running about 6.52% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Software quality assurance analysts and testers ranks 66 of 489 occupations by median in Maryland, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- After tax, $81,984 remains from the Maryland median of $111,100 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $78,857 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $123,410 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $77,270 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $111,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $171,810 |
| This salary | $111,100 |
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 | $81,984 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $86,989 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,661 |
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 | $103,986 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,726 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Maryland earn less than $111,100. The published range is $77,270 up to $171,810, 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 Maryland's $81,984, worked from $111,100. 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 66 of 489.
- Two cautions on $78,857, the adjusted value of that $111,100 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Maryland. 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 66 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for software quality assurance analysts and testers in Maryland the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $77,270 to $171,810. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Maryland take-home of $81,984, on $111,100 for work ranking 66 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 66 of 489 in the state.
- This $78,857 adjusted figure, worked from $111,100, 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 66 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 66 of 489 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 $123,410 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $77,270 at the bottom tenth to $171,810 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $78,857 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 Maryland adds its own income tax on top — which is why $81,984 of this wage survives to your account.
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 46 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 $123,410. 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 ($77,270) and the ninetieth ($171,810) 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 $78,857 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 $81,984 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.