Accountants and Auditors in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$76,753
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$19,797
20.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$70,700
Washington costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Washington — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$96,550
Kept after tax
$76,753
Worth in national money
$70,700
State rank
8
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for accountants and auditors is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $96,550, putting the state 8 of 51 — about 15.38% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 140 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $96,550, tax leaves $76,753 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $70,700 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $102,700, since top earners drag the number up.
- For accountants and auditors, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $96,550, ranking 8 of 51 and running about 15.38% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Accountants and auditors ranks 140 of 493 occupations in Washington by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- After tax, $76,753 remains from the Washington median of $96,550 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $70,700 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $102,700 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Accountants and Auditors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $66,330 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $96,550 |
| Top tenth earn over | $152,310 |
| This salary | $96,550 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Washington | $76,753 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $76,753 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,285 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $96,550 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,444 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of accountants and auditors in Washington earn under $96,550 and half over. The published range runs $66,330 at the tenth percentile to $152,310 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $76,753, from $96,550, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 140 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $70,700, the adjusted value of that $96,550 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Washington. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 140 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for accountants and auditors in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $66,330 to $152,310; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $76,753 from $96,550. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 140 of 493 locally.
- This $70,700 adjusted figure, worked from $96,550, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 140 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 140 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $102,700 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $66,330, the highest tenth $152,310, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Washington run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $70,700 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $76,753 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Washington is $102,700. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($66,330) and the ninetieth ($152,310) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Washington's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $70,700 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Washington levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $76,753 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.