Teachers and Instructors, All Other in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$69,344
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$23,696
25.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,582
District of Columbia costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in District of Columbia — 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
$93,040
Kept after tax
$69,344
Worth in national money
$62,582
State rank
5
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- District of Columbia is one of the better-paying states for teachers and instructors, all other. The middle earner takes $93,040, which ranks 5 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 40.67% above the national middle.
- Against other work in District of Columbia, this sits in the middle: 147 of 390 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $93,040, tax leaves $69,344 — and because District of Columbia is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $62,582 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $96,780, since top earners drag the number up.
- District of Columbia ranks 5 of 50 states publishing a median for teachers and instructors, all other, at $93,040 — about 40.67% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Teachers and instructors, all other ranks 147 of 390 occupations in District of Columbia 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.
- After tax, $69,344 remains from the District of Columbia median of $93,040 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $62,582 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $96,780 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Teachers and Instructors, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,730 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $93,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $172,040 |
| This salary | $93,040 |
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 District of Columbia | $69,344 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $74,284 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$13,861 |
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 | $86,018 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$19,146 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $93,040 as a midpoint for District of Columbia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,730 and the ninetieth is $172,040 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $69,344 take-home in District of Columbia comes from $93,040. 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 147 of 390.
- One number stands for prices across all of District of Columbia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $62,582, the adjusted value of that $93,040 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 147 of 390 in the state.
- The District of Columbia median of $93,040 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,730 to $172,040. 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 $69,344, from $93,040, assumes a single District of Columbia 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 147 of 390 locally, and the state ranks 5 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for District of Columbia, so $62,582 — the adjusted value of that $93,040 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 147 of 390 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 $96,780 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $46,730, the highest tenth $172,040, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. District of Columbia costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $62,582 rather than its face figure.
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; District of Columbia then takes its own share, leaving $69,344.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 District of Columbia is $96,780. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($46,730) and the ninetieth ($172,040) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
District of Columbia's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $62,582 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 $69,344 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and District of Columbia 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.