Occupation / job
Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
$84,290 against a $50,020 national midpoint is 69% more, or $16.47 an hour. Almost nothing pays this much more without a long, expensive or restricted route in — read that route before reading the number again.
11,850 people work as Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary. That is enough for a functioning national market and not enough for a functioning local one — in most metros this is a few employers rather than a field you can move around inside.
This work suits people who want to spend a career inside one subject, teaching it while contributing to it, and who can tolerate an institution whose incentives do not always favour either.
No verified preparation time is on file for Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
$45,660 separates the bottom quarter of Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary at $64,990 from the top quarter at $110,650. At a 1.7x ratio the midpoint is a weak guide to your own first year — find out which end you would be entering at.
The bottom quarter of Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary earns $64,990 or more — $14,970 clear of the $50,020 national midpoint. Three quarters of the field is well paid and the last quarter is still paid better than most of the country.
Avoid it if the administrative and committee load would spoil the subject for you, because it is a large share of the week.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 11,850 people employed as Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
From $64,990 to $110,650 at a ratio of 1.7x is wide enough that two people with the same job title have materially different jobs. $84,290 sits in the middle of that and describes neither of them especially well.
In cash terms the middle half of Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary runs $64,990 to $110,650 — $45,660 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $84,290.
The 75th percentile is $110,650. Reaching it from the $84,290 midpoint is $26,360 a year; reaching it from the $64,990 that the bottom quarter of Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary earn is $45,660.
The climb from $84,290 to $110,650 is $26,360, against $19,300 down to $64,990. Rather more of the range sits above the midpoint than below it, so the realistic upside in Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary is larger than the realistic downside.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $40.52 at the midpoint for Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary, $31.24 at the 25th percentile and $53.19 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $84,290 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary, the hourly figure is $84,290 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else