Mississippi · BLS May 2025

How much does a teaching assistant make in Mississippi?

Also called teacher aide, paraprofessional. BLS records this occupation as Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary” (SOC 25-9045).

A teaching assistant in Mississippi earns a median of $25,840 a year, about $1,882 a month after federal, state and FICA tax. Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 9,750 of these jobs in Mississippi in May 2025.

Median pay · Mississippi

$25,840A year. BLS publishes no hourly wage for this occupation.
Take-home a month$1,882After federal, state and FICA tax at 12.6%
Worth at national prices$29,717Prices here sit at 87 against 100
Against the nation29.7% belowNational median $36,780
What teaching assistants earn in Mississippi, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$18,830Not published
25th percentile$22,040Not published
MedianHalf earn more, half less$25,840Not published
75th percentile$29,000Not published
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$32,300Not published
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$25,830Not published

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in MississippiBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$25,840
  2. Take-home after federal, state and FICA tax$1,882 a month at an effective rate of 12.6%.$22,588 a year
  3. Worth at national average pricesPrices in Mississippi sit at 87 against a national 100 (BEA, 2024).$29,717
  4. Against the national medianThe national median is $36,780.29.7% below
  5. Jobs countedA concentration of 0.92 against the nation's 1.00.9,750
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 $25,840 in Mississippi, for a single filer taking the standard deduction in 2026. Explore other wage levels and filing statuses below.

$25,840
$15,000$35,000
Filing status:
Gross salary breakdown$25,840
Net 87%
Fed 4%
MS 1%
FICA 8%
Annual take-home$22,588After all taxes
Monthly deposit$1,882Estimated per month
Biweekly paycheck$869Every 2 weeks (26/yr)
Effective tax rate12.6%Total tax burden
Federal income tax$974 / yr
Mississippi state income tax$302 / yr
FICA (Social Security & Medicare)$1,977 / 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 $25,840 is worth in Mississippi

Prices in Mississippi sit at 87 against a national average of 100, so $25,840 earned here buys what $29,717 buys at national average prices.

  • Rents. 56.5 against 100, the component that moves most between states.
  • Against local households. The median household in Mississippi takes in $56,447, so this occupation's median is 0.46 times that, on one income.
  • How common the job is here. 8% less concentrated in Mississippi than in the country as a whole.

Compare two places properly →

Reading the numbers

What stands out for teaching assistants in Mississippi

Mississippi ranks 50 of 51 states by median pay for teaching assistants, among the lowest-paying in the country.

Rents in Mississippi index at 56.5 (U.S. = 100) while prices overall index at 87, a gap of -30.5 pts. For a renter, housing moves the local cost of living more than anything else.

Prices in Mississippi index at 87 (U.S. = 100), so the $25,840 median buys roughly what $29,717 would at national prices, $3,877 more.

The median for this job is 0.5 times the median household income in Mississippi ($56,447). Many households have two earners, so one paycheck at this level falls short of what a typical local household brings in.

Common questions

Teaching Assistant pay in Mississippi, answered

How much does a teaching assistant make in Mississippi?

The median wage for teaching assistants in Mississippi is $25,840 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 teaching assistant salary in Mississippi?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for teaching assistants in Mississippi is $25,830 a year. The median is $25,840.

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 teaching assistant in Mississippi?

BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in Mississippi, the lowest-paid 10% of teaching assistants earn under $18,830 a year and a quarter earn under $22,040.

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 teaching assistant in Mississippi?

The overall salary range for teaching assistants in Mississippi spans from $18,830 for the bottom 10% to $32,300 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $22,040 and $29,000 a year, with the overall median at $25,840.

What is the take-home pay for a teaching assistant in Mississippi?

On the median wage of $25,840, a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction keeps an estimated $22,588 a year, or roughly $1,882 a month.

That is after federal, state and FICA tax, an effective rate of 12.6%.

Mississippi takes $302 of it in state income tax.

How much does a teaching assistant make a month in Mississippi?

On the median annual salary of $25,840, estimated take-home pay is roughly $1,882 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 $869 net.

Do teaching assistants earn more in Mississippi than in the rest of the country?

No. The median in Mississippi is 29.7% below the national median of $36,780.

Nominal pay is only half the comparison: prices in Mississippi sit at 87 against a national 100, so the gap in what the money buys is different from the gap in the salary.

Is $25,840 a good salary in Mississippi?

It is 0.46 times the median household income of $56,447. A household often has more than one earner, so a single salary at this level goes further than the ratio alone suggests.

Prices in Mississippi run at 87 against a national average of 100, with rents at 56.5, so $25,840 here buys about what $29,717 buys at national average prices.

What do the highest-paid teaching assistants earn in Mississippi?

The top tenth earn $32,300 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $18,830.

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

How many teaching assistants are there in Mississippi?

The survey counted 9,750 of these jobs in Mississippi for May 2025.

That makes the occupation 8% less 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

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