Special Education Teachers, Middle School in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,192
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$13,248
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,693
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$63,440
Kept after tax
$50,192
Worth in national money
$51,693
State rank
29
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Maine pays this job around $63,440 at the midpoint, 29 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 484 occupations Maine reports figures for, this is number 198.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $63,440, tax leaves $50,192, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $51,693 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $66,100, since top earners drag the number up.
- For special education teachers, middle school the Maine median is $63,440, ranking 29 of 51 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.
- In Maine's occupational distribution, special education teachers, middle school sits at 198 of 484 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for special education teachers, middle school — median $63,440 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $50,192 retained, $51,693 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $66,100 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Special Education Teachers, Middle School
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $81,550 |
| This salary | $63,440 |
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 Maine | $50,192 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,154 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,007 |
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 | $59,753 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,636 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,440 as a midpoint for Maine, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,560 and the ninetieth is $81,550 — 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 Maine's $50,192, worked from $63,440. 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 198 of 484.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $51,693 uses one figure for the whole of Maine. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 198.
- The Maine median of $63,440 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,560 to $81,550. 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 Maine take-home of $50,192, on $63,440 for work ranking 198 of 484 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 198 of 484 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $51,693, worked from $63,440, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Maine address, on work sitting at 198 of 484 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 $66,100 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $47,560 at the tenth percentile, $81,550 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Maine is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $51,693 in national terms.
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 Maine adds its own income tax on top — which is why $50,192 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 Maine is $66,100. 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 ($47,560 to $81,550) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Maine'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 $51,693 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 $50,192 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.