Special Education Teachers, Secondary School in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,919
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$12,791
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,381
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
$61,710
Kept after tax
$48,919
Worth in national money
$50,381
State rank
34
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Maine pays this job around $61,710 at the midpoint, 34 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 224 among 484 occupations Maine publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $61,710, tax leaves $48,919, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $50,381 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $64,590, since top earners drag the number up.
- For special education teachers, secondary school the Maine median is $61,710, ranking 34 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.
- Position 224 of 484 in Maine places special education teachers, secondary 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 Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for special education teachers, secondary school — median $61,710 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $48,919 retained, $50,381 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $64,590 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, Secondary School
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,350 |
| This salary | $61,710 |
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 | $48,919 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,764 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,888 |
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 | $58,169 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,492 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,710 as a midpoint for Maine, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $48,200 and the ninetieth is $82,350 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $48,919 take-home in Maine comes from $61,710. 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 224 of 484.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maine, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $50,381, the adjusted value of that $61,710 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 224 of 484 in the state.
- The Maine median of $61,710 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $48,200 to $82,350. 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 $48,919, from $61,710, assumes a single Maine 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 224 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 34 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maine, so $50,381 — the adjusted value of that $61,710 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 224 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 $64,590, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $48,200 at the tenth percentile, $82,350 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $50,381.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Maine's own levy, $48,919 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $64,590. 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 ($48,200 to $82,350) 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 $50,381 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 $48,919 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.