Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,376
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$5,694
14.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,665
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
$40,070
Kept after tax
$34,376
Worth in national money
$31,665
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $40,070, which ranks 3 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 11.83% above the national middle.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 478. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $40,070 the take-home is $34,376; in national-average money that behaves like $31,665. The average comes to $42,800, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington ranks 3 of 51 states publishing a median for cleaners of vehicles and equipment, at $40,070 — about 11.83% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, cleaners of vehicles and equipment ranks 478 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Take-home for cleaners of vehicles and equipment in Washington, on $40,070, is $34,376; deflated by the state's price level, $31,665. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $42,800 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $52,120 |
| This salary | $40,070 |
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 | $34,376 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,376 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,711 |
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 | $40,070 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,487 |
| 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 cleaners of vehicles and equipment in Washington earn under $40,070 and half over. The published range runs $35,470 at the tenth percentile to $52,120 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $34,376, from $40,070, 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 478 of 493 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $31,665 uses one figure for the whole of Washington. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 478.
- Figures are distribution medians for cleaners of vehicles and equipment in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $35,470 to $52,120; 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.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $34,376 from $40,070. 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 478 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $31,665, worked from $40,070, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Washington address, on work sitting at 478 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 $42,800 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,470 and the top tenth $52,120, 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 $31,665 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $34,376 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 $42,800. 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 ($35,470 to $52,120) 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 $31,665 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 $34,376 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.