What Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary earn in Plymouth County, MA
The median pay for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in Plymouth County, MA is $164,450 per year, which works out to $79.06 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area, the labor market that Plymouth County, MA belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $176,930, which is 7.6% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,830 people working in this occupation across the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Plymouth County, MA has roughly 535,075 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $77,240 a year ($37.13 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $343,190 or more ($165.00 an hour). That is a gap of $265,950 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $103,090 at the 25th percentile and $216,590 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 4.4 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in Plymouth County, MA is $79.06. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $164,450, and the same salary is $13,704 a month before taxes or about $6,325 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $55.45 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary this way: "Teach courses in health specialties, in fields such as dentistry, laboratory technology, medicine, pharmacy, public health, therapy, and veterinary medicine."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions"; "Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences"; "Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others"; "Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers".
Job outlook for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 278,400 jobs in 2025 to 328,300 in 2035, a change of +17.9%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 24,900 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.9% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: doctoral or professional degree. Work experience in a related occupation: less than 5 years. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $107,310 for this occupation; the Plymouth County, MA median of $164,450 is 53.2% above it.
How pay in Plymouth County, MA compares
Compared with the Massachusetts average
Plymouth County, MA pays above the state benchmark. The Massachusetts employment-weighted average for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary is $149,339; the local median of $164,450 beats it by $15,111, or 10.1%. Within Massachusetts, Plymouth County, MA already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary is $124,210 across the contiguous United States. At $164,450, Plymouth County, MA pays $40,240 more, which is 32.4% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Plymouth County, MA
Among the 581 occupations with published wages in Plymouth County, MA, Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary ranks number 29 by median pay, ahead of about 95% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Natural Sciences Managers at $291,000 a year, which is $126,550 more than the median for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $164,450 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $49,118 a year, which leaves $115,332, or $9,611 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $30 goes to taxes and $70 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 29.9%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $148,700. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 24% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $28,535, an effective 17.4% of gross pay, well below the 24% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $10,196 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $2,385. FICA totals $12,580, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Massachusetts
Massachusetts income tax on this salary is $8,003 a year, or 4.9% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 28% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $667 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Plymouth County, MA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Plymouth County, MA show an average adjusted gross income of $114,703 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 15.9% across all filers. Filers in the $100,000 to under $200,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 11.7%, compared with the 17.4% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Plymouth County, MA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Plymouth County, MA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $115,332 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Plymouth County, MA is $2,185 a month, or $26,220 a year. A two-bedroom costs $2,713 a month. For Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary, a one-bedroom absorbs 22.7% of take-home pay and 15.9% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 2.1% of gross pay for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in Plymouth County, MA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Massachusetts residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $3,101 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $867, for $3,968 in total. Gasoline in Massachusetts averages $3.33 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,542.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $35,165 a year, 30% of take-home pay. That leaves $80,167 a year, or $6,681 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 48.7% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Plymouth County, MA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Plymouth County, MA: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Plymouth County, MA, set beside the Massachusetts and national medians.
Property taxes in Plymouth County, MA
Homeowners in Plymouth County, MA pay a median of $6,502 a year in real estate taxes, 9% above the Massachusetts median of $5,992 and 108% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $556,000, the median tax bill is 1.17% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary median of $164,450, a tax bill of that size would equal 4.0% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Plymouth County, MA
Renters in Plymouth County, MA pay a median gross rent of $1,747 a month in the Census survey, in line with the Massachusetts median of $1,762. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $2,185 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $556,000, 1% below the Massachusetts median of $562,100. Median household income is $114,201, 10% above the Massachusetts median of $103,960, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 23.0% of that income.
Commuting in Plymouth County, MA
Workers in Plymouth County, MA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 32.5 minutes each way, 12% above the Massachusetts average of 29.1. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.4 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 16.2% of workers in Plymouth County, MA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary afford to live in Plymouth County, MA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $164,450 that ceiling is $4,111 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,185 is $1,926 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $42.02 an hour; the median for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary is $79.06, which is 88% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $55.45 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 9.1 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,713 a month means $1,357 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $9,942 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $90,109.
How fast you can save
At $6,681 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 2 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 4 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary pay in Plymouth County, MA
What is the hourly wage for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in Plymouth County, MA?
The median is $79.06 per hour, based on $164,450 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $37.13 at the 10th percentile to $165.00 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in Plymouth County, MA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $164,450 becomes $115,332 a year. That is $9,611 a month, $4,436 every two weeks or $2,218 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in Plymouth County, MA?
Total taxes are $49,118 a year, an effective rate of 29.9%: $28,535 federal income tax, $12,580 FICA and $8,003 Massachusetts income tax.
Is pay for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in Plymouth County, MA above the Massachusetts average?
Yes. The local median of $164,450 is +10.1% versus the Massachusetts average of $149,339, a difference of $15,111 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary salary in Plymouth County, MA?
A one-bedroom costs $2,185 a month against take-home pay of $9,611, which is 22.7% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $4,111 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary in Plymouth County, MA?
About $6,681 a month ($80,167 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $35,165 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Plymouth County, MA at the 30% guideline?
$42.02 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $26,220 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary is $79.06.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Massachusetts rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.