Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors Salary

It’s a stretch — at the median salary of $51K, rent takes 32.1% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,095/month. The 30% guideline puts the comfortable ceiling at roughly $1,000/month in rent — so roommates or a 1-bedroom would ease the math significantly.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors typically earn — is $37K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $2,231/month. At HUD’s $1,095/month FMR, rent would take 49% of that take-home — above the 30% guideline, so a 1-bedroom or shared housing is likely necessary starting out.

Local pay runs 17% below the national median — $51K here vs. $62K nationally. Cost of living is 12% below the national average, which narrows that gap in real purchasing power.

Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton pays $51K median vs. the U.S. average of $62K — that’s -17%. After adjusting for local cost of living (RPP 88.49), the purchasing-power equivalent is $58K — below the national median.

The median is $51,290 a year, that works out to about $25 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $37,180, and experienced adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors can clear $70,240. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $3,412/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,095/month, which eats 32.1% of your paycheck. That's above the 30% rule of thumb, housing will be a stretch at the median salary, though you can manage with roommates or a smaller place.

Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton has a Regional Price Parity of 88.49 (100 is the national average). That's below average, your money stretches further here than the raw salary number suggests. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median adult basic education, adult secondary education, and english as a second language instructors salary is worth about $57,961 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.