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Pay · 25-1065

Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary earn $98,070 a year at the midpoint

Where you land matters more here than in most jobs — the top tenth earn more than 3.1 times the bottom tenth. The midpoint is $98,070.

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$98,070median a year · United States
—an hour $108,100average 16,970people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$73,26025th $98,070median $129,13075th
$56,45010th percentile $174,66090th percentile
$73,260a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$128,150best-paying state · Massachusetts
$58,350lowest-paying state · Arkansas
+31%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

Paid by the yearThe survey publishes no hourly figure for this occupation — it is typically salaried, often on a school or contract year.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $128,150 in Massachusetts and $58,350 in Arkansas — a gap of $69,800 a year.

Postsecondary political science teacher earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 10%

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Postsecondary political science teacher pay rate, hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$98,072a year

Examples

Resumes written for this line of work.

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Postsecondary political science teacher wages across the states

The 44 states where the most people do this work, of 45 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.20 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Massachusetts $128,150 $78,380 $78,380 — $219,420 920
California $124,890 $67,510 $67,510 — $212,210 1,060
New Hampshire $124,110 $66,040 $66,040 — $310,170 90
Vermont $107,490 $76,060 $76,060 — $169,790 80
Michigan $107,060 $61,020 $61,020 — $225,510 380
Maryland $105,630 $66,810 $66,810 — $219,530 370
New York $104,050 $64,100 $64,100 — $211,420 1,460
District of Columbia $102,310 $63,270 $63,270 — $167,860 1,120
Virginia $101,430 $59,600 $59,600 — $176,660 830
Rhode Island $101,320 $62,640 $62,640 — $156,820 170
Washington $101,140 $55,190 $55,190 — $133,930 450
Illinois $100,700 $60,220 $60,220 — $135,810 460
New Jersey $100,260 $32,220 $32,220 — $171,420 650
Connecticut $100,230 $62,570 $62,570 — $227,470 320
Arizona $99,910 $60,060 $60,060 — $130,530 190
Pennsylvania $97,230 $61,350 $61,350 — $152,080 660
Minnesota $97,170 $73,670 $73,670 — $168,550 250
Maine $96,760 $65,870 $65,870 — $177,690 60
Missouri $94,500 $52,670 $52,670 — $214,900 280
Nevada $93,300 $72,400 $72,400 — $144,260 70
Louisiana $88,090 $49,990 $49,990 — $147,350 70
Texas $86,950 $49,010 $49,010 — $168,900 1,890
Nebraska $86,380 $58,490 $58,490 — $125,370 50
Wyoming $84,750 $47,500 $47,500 — $126,140 40
Indiana $83,770 $52,290 $52,290 — $165,540 630
Oregon $83,580 $72,120 $72,120 — $133,350 540
Wisconsin $83,190 $62,310 $62,310 — $187,820 290
Tennessee $81,330 $60,040 $60,040 — $151,760 250
New Mexico $80,640 $60,120 $60,120 — $127,840 40
Utah $80,610 $46,010 $46,010 — $129,810 70
Iowa $80,160 $48,470 $48,470 — $167,090 100
Ohio $80,090 $46,910 $46,910 — $126,940 460
Georgia $79,870 $48,710 $48,710 — $152,460 470
Kansas $78,800 $54,120 $54,120 — $140,380 80
North Carolina $78,760 $47,240 $47,240 — $144,630 440
Kentucky $78,670 $38,220 $38,220 — $176,620 140
South Carolina $78,650 $41,130 $41,130 — $129,350 210
Alabama $77,860 $51,650 $51,650 — $139,270 180
Florida $77,860 $52,460 $52,460 — $163,370 270
West Virginia $77,420 $43,370 $43,370 — $125,170 70
South Dakota $72,580 $59,740 $59,740 — $101,620 30
Oklahoma $63,400 $30,330 $30,330 — $127,990 90
Mississippi $59,270 $44,700 $44,700 — $90,100 90
Arkansas $58,350 $56,420 $56,420 — $79,000 80

Adjacent work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary$98,070
Economics Teachers, Postsecondary$123,920+$25,850 Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary$99,650+$1,580 Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary$85,020−$13,050 Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary$84,290−$13,780 Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary$80,340−$17,730 Social Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary, All Other$72,990−$25,080

No. 129 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 84% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 127 Agricultural Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary $98,700
  2. 128 Agricultural Engineers $98,590
  3. 129 Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary $98,070
  4. 130 Speech-Language Pathologists $97,870
  5. 131 Geography Teachers, Postsecondary $97,590

Resumes for political science teachers, postsecondary

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  • Prepared and delivered lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as classical political thought, international relations, and democracy and citizenship.
  • Kept abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
  • Evaluated and graded students' class work, assignments, and papers.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Questions people often ask

What is a postsecondary political science teacher’s yearly income?

A postsecondary political science teacher makes a median of $98,070 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $73,260 and $129,130.

What is the starting pay for a postsecondary political science teacher?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $73,260 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $56,450.

Which state pays political science teachers, postsecondary the most?

Massachusetts, with a median of $128,150 a year.

How many people work as political science teachers, postsecondary?

About 16,970 in the United States — number 129 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Jobs that pay about the same

Median pay within $520 of what political science teachers, postsecondary earn — $98,070 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations