Audio and Video Technicians in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$57,561
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$11,709
16.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$53,022
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
$69,270
Kept after tax
$57,561
Worth in national money
$53,022
State rank
4
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays audio and video technicians a middle wage of $69,270, ranking 4 of 49 states and sitting about 19.23% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 258 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $69,270 the take-home is $57,561. But Washington costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $53,022 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $77,940, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Washington's median for audio and video technicians is $69,270, about 19.23% above the national figure and 4 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Audio and video technicians ranks 258 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.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and Washington income tax is $57,561 for audio and video technicians, from $69,270. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $53,022. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $77,940 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Audio and Video Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $69,270 |
| Top tenth earn over | $121,740 |
| This salary | $69,270 |
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 | $57,561 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $57,561 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,213 |
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 | $69,270 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,859 |
| 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 $69,270. The published range is $49,900 up to $121,740, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $57,561 take-home in Washington comes from $69,270. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 258 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $53,022, the adjusted value of that $69,270 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 258 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for audio and video technicians in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $49,900 to $121,740. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $57,561, from $69,270, assumes a single Washington filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 258 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $53,022 — the adjusted value of that $69,270 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 258 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 $77,940 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 $49,900, the highest tenth $121,740, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $53,022 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $57,561 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?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 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 $77,940. 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 ($49,900) and the ninetieth ($121,740) 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 $53,022 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 $57,561 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.