Athletic Trainers in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$57,813
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$16,637
22.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,176
District of Columbia costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in District of Columbia — 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
$74,450
Kept after tax
$57,813
Worth in national money
$52,176
State rank
4
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. District of Columbia pays athletic trainers a middle wage of $74,450, ranking 4 of 50 states and sitting about 19.08% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Athletic trainers ranks 220 among 390 occupations District of Columbia publishes pay for.
- District of Columbia is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $74,450 the take-home is $57,813; in national-average money that behaves like $52,176. The average comes to $84,310, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- District of Columbia's median for athletic trainers is $74,450, about 19.08% above the national figure and 4 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 220 of 390 in District of Columbia places athletic trainers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Take-home for athletic trainers in District of Columbia, on $74,450, is $57,813; deflated by the state's price level, $52,176. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $84,310 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Athletic Trainers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $59,290 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $74,450 |
| Top tenth earn over | $143,050 |
| This salary | $74,450 |
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 District of Columbia | $57,813 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,206 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,809 |
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 | $69,627 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,062 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $74,450 as a midpoint for District of Columbia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $59,290 and the ninetieth is $143,050 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind District of Columbia's $57,813, worked from $74,450. 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 220 of 390.
- Two cautions on $52,176, the adjusted value of that $74,450 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of District of Columbia. 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 220 of 390 locally.
- The District of Columbia median of $74,450 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $59,290 to $143,050. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The District of Columbia take-home of $57,813, on $74,450 for work ranking 220 of 390 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 220 of 390 in the state.
- This $52,176 adjusted figure, worked from $74,450, 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 220 of 390 in the state. The occupation ranks 220 of 390 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $84,310, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $59,290 and the top tenth $143,050 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. District of Columbia costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $52,176 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and District of Columbia's own levy, $57,813 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 District of Columbia is $84,310. 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 ($59,290) and the ninetieth ($143,050) 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?
District of Columbia's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $52,176 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $57,813 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and District of Columbia income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.