Art Directors in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$94,073
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$27,097
22.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$86,654
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
$121,170
Kept after tax
$94,073
Worth in national money
$86,654
State rank
8
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays art directors a middle wage of $121,170, ranking 8 of 46 states and sitting about 5.5% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 493 occupations Washington reports, art directors comes in at 68 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $121,170 the take-home is $94,073; in national-average money that behaves like $86,654. The average comes to $130,550, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington's median for art directors is $121,170, about 5.5% above the national figure and 8 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Art directors ranks 68 of 493 occupations by median in Washington, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Take-home for art directors in Washington, on $121,170, is $94,073; deflated by the state's price level, $86,654. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $130,550 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $69,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $121,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $215,900 |
| This salary | $121,170 |
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 | $94,073 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $94,073 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,154 |
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 | $121,170 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,026 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $121,170 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $69,690 and the ninetieth is $215,900 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $94,073, from $121,170, 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 68 of 493 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $86,654 uses one figure for the whole of Washington. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 68.
- The Washington median of $121,170 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $69,690 to $215,900. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $94,073 from $121,170. 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 68 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $86,654, worked from $121,170, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Washington address, on work sitting at 68 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 $130,550 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $69,690 at the bottom tenth to $215,900 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $86,654 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $94,073 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 46 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $130,550. 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 ($69,690) and the ninetieth ($215,900) 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 $86,654 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 $94,073 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.