Special Education Teachers, Preschool in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,571
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$10,319
18.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,715
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$56,890
Kept after tax
$46,571
Worth in national money
$52,715
State rank
38
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Louisiana pays this job a middle wage of $56,890, 38 of 45 states and about 12.25% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Louisiana, this sits in the middle: 221 of 484 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Louisiana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $56,890 the take-home is $46,571; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $52,715 would nationally. The average lands at $55,140, below the middle of the range.
- Louisiana's $56,890 median for special education teachers, preschool places it 38 of 45 states, about 12.25% 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.
- Special education teachers, preschool ranks 221 of 484 occupations in Louisiana by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for special education teachers, preschool in Louisiana, on $56,890, is $46,571 — equivalent to $52,715 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $55,140 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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Pay band: Special Education Teachers, Preschool
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,750 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,890 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,200 |
| This salary | $56,890 |
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 Louisiana | $46,571 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,891 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,431 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $55,247 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,150 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $56,890 as a midpoint for Louisiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,750 and the ninetieth is $61,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $46,571 take-home in Louisiana comes from $56,890. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 221 of 484.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,715 uses one figure for the whole of Louisiana. 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 221.
- The Louisiana median of $56,890 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,750 to $61,200. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $46,571, from $56,890, assumes a single Louisiana filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 221 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 45 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,715, worked from $56,890, 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 Louisiana address, on work sitting at 221 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $55,140, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $37,750 at the bottom tenth to $61,200 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Louisiana sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $52,715 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Louisiana adds its own income tax on top — which is why $46,571 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 45 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 Louisiana is $55,140. 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 ($37,750 to $61,200) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Louisiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Louisiana'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 $52,715 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 $46,571 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.