Technical Writers in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$75,367
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$25,623
25.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$72,493
Maryland costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maryland — 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
$100,990
Kept after tax
$75,367
Worth in national money
$72,493
State rank
8
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Maryland is one of the better-paying states for technical writers. The middle earner takes $100,990, which ranks 8 of 45 states with published figures. That is about 11.73% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 489 occupations Maryland reports, technical writers comes in at 94 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Maryland is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $100,990 the take-home is $75,367; in national-average money that behaves like $72,493. The average comes to $104,800, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Maryland ranks 8 of 45 states publishing a median for technical writers, at $100,990 — about 11.73% 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.
- Technical writers ranks 94 of 489 occupations by median in Maryland, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Take-home for technical writers in Maryland, on $100,990, is $75,367; deflated by the state's price level, $72,493. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $104,800 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Technical Writers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $72,880 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $100,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $149,740 |
| This salary | $100,990 |
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 Maryland | $75,367 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,876 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,706 |
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 | $94,580 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,407 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $100,990 as a midpoint for Maryland, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $72,880 and the ninetieth is $149,740 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Maryland the take-home figure of $75,367, from $100,990, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 94 of 489 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $72,493, the adjusted value of that $100,990 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Maryland. 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 94 of 489 locally.
- The Maryland median of $100,990 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $72,880 to $149,740. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Maryland is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $75,367 from $100,990. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 94 of 489 locally.
- This $72,493 adjusted figure, worked from $100,990, 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 94 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 94 of 489 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 $104,800 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $72,880 at the bottom tenth to $149,740 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Maryland costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $72,493 rather than its face figure.
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 Maryland adds its own income tax on top — which is why $75,367 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 Maryland is $104,800. 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 ($72,880) and the ninetieth ($149,740) 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?
Maryland's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $72,493 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 $75,367 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maryland 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.