Child, Family, and School Social Workers in Washington

Two armchairs facing each other in a welcoming counseling room.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$61,227

after federal, FICA and Washington tax

Tax takes

$13,253

17.8% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$56,398

Washington costs more than average

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

$74,480

Kept after tax

$61,227

Worth in national money

$56,398

State rank

5

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for this job is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $74,480, putting the state 5 of 51 — about 25.07% ahead of the national figure.
  • Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 239 among 493 occupations Washington publishes pay for.
  • Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $74,480 the take-home is $61,227; in national-average money that behaves like $56,398. The average lands at $74,100, below the middle of the range.
  • For child, family, and school social workers, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $74,480, ranking 5 of 51 and running about 25.07% 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.
  • Position 239 of 493 in Washington places child, family, and school social workers 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 child, family, and school social workers in Washington, on $74,480, is $61,227; deflated by the state's price level, $56,398. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $74,100 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Child, Family, and School Social Workers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$48,750
Half earn under$74,480
Top tenth earn over$98,100
This salary$74,480

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

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Washington$61,227
Take-home in Texas$61,227
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$6,609

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

Moving to
$0now · $74,480$65,494
$65,494in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$74,480
You could take a cut of−$8,986
Prices in Texas97 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 $74,480. The published range is $48,750 up to $98,100, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • That $61,227 take-home in Washington comes from $74,480. 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 239 of 493.
  • Two cautions on $56,398, the adjusted value of that $74,480 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 239 of 493 locally.
  • Reported values are medians; for child, family, and school social workers in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $48,750 to $98,100. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • Retained pay of $61,227, from $74,480, 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 239 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 5 of 51 for it.
  • This $56,398 adjusted figure, worked from $74,480, 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 239 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 239 of 493 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $48,750 and the top tenth $98,100, so most people doing this work in Washington sit within a fairly tight band.

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 $56,398 of national purchasing power.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

No. $61,227 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.

Can I compare this job across every state?

Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($48,750 to $98,100) 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 $56,398 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 $61,227 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.