Compensation and Benefits Managers in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$110,587
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$50,403
31.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$99,804
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
$160,990
Kept after tax
$110,587
Worth in national money
$99,804
State rank
12
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. District of Columbia pays this job a middle wage of $160,990, ranking 12 of 45 states and sitting about 7.88% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in District of Columbia. It ranks 16 out of 390 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $160,990, tax leaves $110,587 — and because District of Columbia is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $99,804 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $170,480, since top earners drag the number up.
- District of Columbia's median for compensation and benefits managers is $160,990, about 7.88% above the national figure and 12 of 45 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within District of Columbia, compensation and benefits managers ranks 16 of 390 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- After tax, $110,587 remains from the District of Columbia median of $160,990 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $99,804 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $170,480 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Compensation and Benefits Managers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $114,410 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $160,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $251,490 |
| This salary | $160,990 |
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 | $110,587 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $121,303 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$25,025 |
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 | $145,312 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$35,579 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $160,990 as a midpoint for District of Columbia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $114,410 and the ninetieth is $251,490 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $110,587 take-home in District of Columbia comes from $160,990. 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 16 of 390.
- Two cautions on $99,804, the adjusted value of that $160,990 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 16 of 390 locally.
- The District of Columbia median of $160,990 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $114,410 to $251,490. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $110,587, from $160,990, assumes a single District of Columbia 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 16 of 390 locally, and the state ranks 12 of 45 for it.
- This $99,804 adjusted figure, worked from $160,990, 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 16 of 390 in the state. The occupation ranks 16 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 $170,480 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 $114,410, the highest tenth $251,490, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $99,804 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and District of Columbia's own levy, $110,587 remains.
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 45 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 $170,480. 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 ($114,410) and the ninetieth ($251,490) 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 $99,804 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 $110,587 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.