Clergy in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,481
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$13,319
20.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,462
District of Columbia costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in District of Columbia — 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
$64,800
Kept after tax
$51,481
Worth in national money
$46,462
State rank
8
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. District of Columbia pays clergy a middle wage of $64,800, ranking 8 of 50 states and sitting about 6.56% above the national middle.
- Against other work in District of Columbia, this sits in the middle: 249 of 390 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $64,800, tax leaves $51,481 — and because District of Columbia is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $46,462 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $71,770, since top earners drag the number up.
- District of Columbia's median for clergy is $64,800, about 6.56% above the national figure and 8 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Clergy ranks 249 of 390 occupations in District of Columbia 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, $51,481 remains from the District of Columbia median of $64,800 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $46,462 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $71,770 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Clergy
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,800 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,270 |
| This salary | $64,800 |
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 District of Columbia | $51,481 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,247 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,362 |
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 | $61,358 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,323 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
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 clergy in District of Columbia earn under $64,800 and half over. The published range runs $40,600 at the tenth percentile to $99,270 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In District of Columbia the take-home figure of $51,481, from $64,800, 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 249 of 390 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $46,462, the adjusted value of that $64,800 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of District of Columbia. 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 249 of 390 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for clergy in District of Columbia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $40,600 to $99,270; 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 District of Columbia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $51,481 from $64,800. 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 249 of 390 locally.
- This $46,462 adjusted figure, worked from $64,800, 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 249 of 390 in the state. The occupation ranks 249 of 390 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 $71,770 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 $40,600, the highest tenth $99,270, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. District of Columbia costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $46,462 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; District of Columbia then takes its own share, leaving $51,481.
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 50 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 District of Columbia is $71,770. 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 ($40,600) and the ninetieth ($99,270) 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?
District of Columbia's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $46,462 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $51,481 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and District of Columbia income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.