New Mexico · BLS May 2025

How much does a school principal or district administrator make in New Mexico?

Also called principal, school administrator. SOC 11-9032.

A school principal or district administrator in New Mexico earns a median of $107,720 a year, about $6,721 a month after federal, state and FICA tax. Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 2,290 of these jobs in New Mexico in May 2025.

Median pay · New Mexico

$107,720A year. BLS publishes no hourly wage for this occupation.
Take-home a month$6,721After federal, state and FICA tax at 25.1%
Worth at national prices$116,818Prices here sit at 92.2 against 100
Against the nation1.7% aboveNational median $105,870
What education administrators, kindergarten through secondary earn in New Mexico, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$83,860Not published
25th percentile$98,970Not published
MedianHalf earn more, half less$107,720Not published
75th percentile$129,070Not published
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$133,580Not published
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$112,330Not published

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in New MexicoBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$107,720
  2. Take-home after federal, state and FICA tax$6,721 a month at an effective rate of 25.1%.$80,646 a year
  3. Worth at national average pricesPrices in New Mexico sit at 92.2 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$116,818
  4. Against the national medianThe national median is $105,870.1.7% above
  5. Jobs countedA concentration of 1.24 against the nation's 1.00.2,290
What we assumed
  • Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
  • OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
  • Take-home assumes one 2026 filer, filing single, taking the standard deduction, with no dependents, pre-tax retirement contributions or local income tax.
  • BLS publishes only an annual wage for this occupation, because a standard 2,080-hour year would misdescribe it.
  • Regional price parities compare price levels between places in one year. They are not inflation, and they do not adjust for what a household actually buys.
Technical details

Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1, us-tax-2026-v1, bea-rpp-2024-v1, census-acs5-2024-v1

What lands in the bank

Tax year 2026 · Interactive

Estimated on the median salary of $107,720 in New Mexico, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.

$107,720
$80,000$135,000
Filing status:
Gross salary breakdown$107,720
Net 75%
Fed 14%
NM 4%
FICA 8%
Annual take-home$80,646After all taxes
Monthly deposit$6,721Estimated per month
Biweekly paycheck$3,102Every 2 weeks (26/yr)
Effective tax rate25.1%Total tax burden
Federal income tax$14,868 / yr
New Mexico state income tax$3,965 / yr
FICA (Social Security & Medicare)$8,241 / yr

Run the numbers on your own pay

Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.

What $107,720 is worth in New Mexico

Prices in New Mexico sit at 92.2 against a national average of 100, so $107,720 earned here buys what $116,818 buys at national average prices.

  • Rents. 73.6 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
  • Against local households. The median household in New Mexico takes in $64,059, so this occupation's median is 1.68 times that, on one income.
  • How common the job is here. 24% more concentrated in New Mexico than in the country as a whole.

Compare two places properly →

Reading the numbers

What stands out for school principals or district administrators in New Mexico

One median paycheck here is 1.7 times the median household income in New Mexico ($64,059), a figure that counts every earner in the home.

Rents in New Mexico index at 73.6 (U.S. = 100) while prices overall index at 92.2, a gap of -18.6 pts. For a renter, housing moves the local cost of living more than anything else.

Even the lowest-paid 10% of school principals or district administrators in New Mexico make at least $83,860 a year.

Pay is tightly grouped: the 90th percentile ($133,580) is only 1.6 times the 10th ($83,860), so most school principals or district administrators here earn within a narrow band.

Common questions

School Principal or District Administrator pay in New Mexico, answered

How much does a school principal or district administrator make in New Mexico?

The median wage for school principals or district administrators in New Mexico is $107,720 a year.

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.

What is the average school principal or district administrator salary in New Mexico?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for school principals or district administrators in New Mexico is $112,330 a year. The median is $107,720.

The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.

What is the starting salary for a school principal or district administrator in New Mexico?

BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in New Mexico, the lowest-paid 10% of school principals or district administrators earn under $83,860 a year and a quarter earn under $98,970.

New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.

What is the salary range for a school principal or district administrator in New Mexico?

The overall salary range for school principals or district administrators in New Mexico spans from $83,860 for the bottom 10% to $133,580 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $98,970 and $129,070 a year, with the overall median at $107,720.

What is the take-home pay for a school principal or district administrator in New Mexico?

On the median wage of $107,720, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $80,646 a year, or roughly $6,721 a month.

That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 25.1%.

New Mexico takes $3,965 of it in state income tax.

How much does a school principal or district administrator make a month in New Mexico?

On the median annual salary of $107,720, estimated take-home pay is roughly $6,721 a month after federal, state, and FICA taxes.

For workers paid on a standard biweekly schedule (26 pay periods per year), each paycheck is approximately $3,102 net.

Do school principals or district administrators earn more in New Mexico than in the rest of the country?

Yes. The median in New Mexico is 1.7% above the national median of $105,870.

Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in New Mexico sit at 92.2 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.

Is $107,720 a good salary in New Mexico?

It is 1.68 times the median household income of $64,059. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.

Prices in New Mexico run at 92.2 against a national average of 100, with rents at 73.6, so $107,720 here buys about what $116,818 buys at national average prices.

What do the highest-paid school principals or district administrators earn in New Mexico?

The top tenth earn $133,580 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $83,860.

Experience, specialty, employer and the part of New Mexico someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.

How many school principals or district administrators are there in New Mexico?

The survey counted 2,290 of these jobs in New Mexico for May 2025.

That makes the occupation 24% more concentrated here than in the country as a whole. It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.

Sources

Where this data comes from

Notice a discrepancy with official data? Report an issue to hello@costanswer.com ↗