Cashiers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,292
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$5,428
14.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,666
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
$38,720
Kept after tax
$33,292
Worth in national money
$30,666
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for cashiers is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $38,720, putting the state 2 of 51 — about 17.76% ahead of the national figure.
- Measured against other jobs in Washington, this one sits low: 487 of 493 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $38,720 the take-home is $33,292; in national-average money that behaves like $30,666. The average comes to $41,930, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For cashiers, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $38,720, ranking 2 of 51 and running about 17.76% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Cashiers occupies position 487 of 493 in Washington's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Take-home for cashiers in Washington, on $38,720, is $33,292; deflated by the state's price level, $30,666. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $41,930 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cashiers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,560 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $51,370 |
| This salary | $38,720 |
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 | $33,292 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,292 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,593 |
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 | $38,720 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,346 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $38,720 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,560 and the ninetieth is $51,370 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $33,292, from $38,720, 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 487 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $30,666, the adjusted value of that $38,720 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 487 of 493 locally.
- The Washington median of $38,720 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,560 to $51,370. 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 $33,292 from $38,720. 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 487 of 493 locally.
- This $30,666 adjusted figure, worked from $38,720, 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 487 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 487 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 $41,930 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $35,560 at the tenth percentile, $51,370 at the ninetieth.
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 $30,666 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $33,292 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.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 $41,930. 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 ($35,560 to $51,370) 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 $30,666 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 $33,292 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.