Special Education Teachers, Secondary School in Indiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,524
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$11,606
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,723
Indiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Indiana — 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
$61,130
Kept after tax
$49,524
Worth in national money
$53,723
State rank
38
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Indiana pays this job a middle wage of $61,130, 38 of 51 states and about 17.68% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Indiana, this sits in the middle: 203 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $61,130 you keep $49,524 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $53,723 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $65,450, since top earners drag the number up.
- Indiana's $61,130 median for special education teachers, secondary school places it 38 of 51 states, about 17.68% 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, secondary school ranks 203 of 493 occupations in Indiana 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.
- Retained pay in Indiana is $49,524 after the full tax stack, from $61,130. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $53,723 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $65,450 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,130 |
| Top tenth earn over | $85,710 |
| This salary | $61,130 |
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 Indiana | $49,524 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,298 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$934 |
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 | $58,922 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,129 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Indiana earn less than $61,130. The published range is $46,940 up to $85,710, 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 Indiana's $49,524, worked from $61,130. 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 203 of 493.
- Two cautions on $53,723, the adjusted value of that $61,130 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Indiana. 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 203 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for special education teachers, secondary school in Indiana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $46,940 to $85,710. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Indiana take-home of $49,524, on $61,130 for work ranking 203 of 493 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 203 of 493 in the state.
- This $53,723 adjusted figure, worked from $61,130, 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 203 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 203 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $65,450, 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 $46,940 at the bottom tenth to $85,710 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Indiana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $53,723 in national terms.
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; Indiana then takes its own share, leaving $49,524.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 Indiana is $65,450. 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 ($46,940 to $85,710) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Indiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Indiana'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 $53,723 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 $49,524 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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.