Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,602
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$15,098
18.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,429
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
$80,700
Kept after tax
$65,602
Worth in national money
$60,429
State rank
13
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays this job a middle wage of $80,700, ranking 13 of 51 states and sitting about 3.46% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 188 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $80,700, tax leaves $65,602 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $60,429 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $85,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington's median for claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators is $80,700, about 3.46% above the national figure and 13 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators ranks 188 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.
- After tax, $65,602 remains from the Washington median of $80,700 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $60,429 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $85,270 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,080 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $122,840 |
| This salary | $80,700 |
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 | $65,602 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,602 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,081 |
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 | $80,700 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,781 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators in Washington earn under $80,700 and half over. The published range runs $50,080 at the tenth percentile to $122,840 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Washington's $65,602, worked from $80,700. 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 188 of 493.
- Two cautions on $60,429, the adjusted value of that $80,700 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 188 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $50,080 to $122,840; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Washington take-home of $65,602, on $80,700 for work ranking 188 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 188 of 493 in the state.
- This $60,429 adjusted figure, worked from $80,700, 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 188 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 188 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $85,270, 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 $50,080 and the top tenth $122,840 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $60,429 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $65,602 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?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $85,270. 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 ($50,080) and the ninetieth ($122,840) 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 $60,429 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 $65,602 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.