Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten and Elementary School in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,394
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$18,906
22.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$64,483
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$84,300
Kept after tax
$65,394
Worth in national money
$64,483
State rank
5
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $84,300, putting the state 5 of 51 — about 29.45% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 135 among 452 occupations Rhode Island publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $84,300, tax leaves $65,394, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $64,483 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $80,910.
- For special education teachers, kindergarten and elementary school, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $84,300, ranking 5 of 51 and running about 29.45% 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.
- Position 135 of 452 in Rhode Island places special education teachers, kindergarten and elementary school 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.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for special education teachers, kindergarten and elementary school — median $84,300 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $65,394 retained, $64,483 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $80,910 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten and Elementary School
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $60,420 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $84,300 |
| Top tenth earn over | $98,170 |
| This salary | $84,300 |
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 Rhode Island | $65,394 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $68,135 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,633 |
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 | $80,403 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,780 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 special education teachers, kindergarten and elementary school in Rhode Island earn under $84,300 and half over. The published range runs $60,420 at the tenth percentile to $98,170 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $65,394, from $84,300, 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 135 of 452 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $64,483, the adjusted value of that $84,300 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 135 of 452 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for special education teachers, kindergarten and elementary school in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $60,420 to $98,170; 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 Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $65,394 from $84,300. 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 135 of 452 locally.
- This $64,483 adjusted figure, worked from $84,300, 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 135 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 135 of 452 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 $80,910, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $60,420 and the top tenth $98,170, so most people doing this work in Rhode Island sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $64,483 rather than its face figure.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $65,394 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 Rhode Island is $80,910. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($60,420 to $98,170) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $64,483 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 $65,394 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.