Atmospheric and Space Scientists in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$75,240
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$19,160
20.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$69,306
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
$94,400
Kept after tax
$75,240
Worth in national money
$69,306
State rank
29
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington sits in the middle of the pack for atmospheric and space scientists. The median is $94,400, ranking 29 of 47 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 150 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $94,400 the take-home is $75,240; in national-average money that behaves like $69,306. The average comes to $113,120, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington occupies the middle band for atmospheric and space scientists: a median of $94,400, ranking 29 of 47. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Atmospheric and space scientists ranks 150 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.
- Take-home for atmospheric and space scientists in Washington, on $94,400, is $75,240; deflated by the state's price level, $69,306. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $113,120 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Atmospheric and Space Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $76,440 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $94,400 |
| Top tenth earn over | $160,750 |
| This salary | $94,400 |
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 | $75,240 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $75,240 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,121 |
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 | $94,400 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,218 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $94,400 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $76,440 and the ninetieth is $160,750 — 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 Washington's $75,240, worked from $94,400. 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 150 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $69,306, the adjusted value of that $94,400 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 150 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $94,400 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $76,440 to $160,750. 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 Washington take-home of $75,240, on $94,400 for work ranking 150 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 150 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $69,306 — the adjusted value of that $94,400 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 150 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $113,120, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $76,440, the highest tenth $160,750, 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 $69,306 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $75,240 of this wage reaches your account, because Washington takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 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 Washington is $113,120. 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 ($76,440) and the ninetieth ($160,750) 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 $69,306 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 $75,240 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.