Animal Caretakers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,778
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$5,792
14.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,035
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
$40,570
Kept after tax
$34,778
Worth in national money
$32,035
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays animal caretakers a middle wage of $40,570, ranking 2 of 51 states and sitting about 14.73% above the national middle.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, animal caretakers ranks 475. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $40,570, tax leaves $34,778 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $32,035 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $46,160, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington's median for animal caretakers is $40,570, about 14.73% above the national figure and 2 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, animal caretakers ranks 475 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- After tax, $34,778 remains from the Washington median of $40,570 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $32,035 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $46,160 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Animal Caretakers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,570 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,580 |
| This salary | $40,570 |
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 | $34,778 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,778 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,754 |
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 | $40,570 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,540 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Washington earn less than $40,570. The published range is $36,100 up to $64,580, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Washington's $34,778, worked from $40,570. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 475 of 493.
- Two cautions on $32,035, the adjusted value of that $40,570 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 475 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for animal caretakers in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $36,100 to $64,580. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Washington take-home of $34,778, on $40,570 for work ranking 475 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 475 of 493 in the state.
- This $32,035 adjusted figure, worked from $40,570, 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 475 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 475 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 $46,160 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $36,100 at the bottom tenth to $64,580 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $32,035 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $34,778 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 $46,160. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,100 to $64,580) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Washington rather than a national figure.
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 $32,035 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 $34,778 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.