Compliance Officers in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$80,471
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$30,559
27.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$72,624
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
$111,030
Kept after tax
$80,471
Worth in national money
$72,624
State rank
1
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for compliance officers is strong here. District of Columbia's middle earner gets $111,030, putting the state 1 of 51 — about 37.53% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 390 occupations District of Columbia reports, compliance officers comes in at 73 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $111,030 the take-home is $80,471. But District of Columbia costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $72,624 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $113,410, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For compliance officers, District of Columbia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $111,030, ranking 1 of 51 and running about 37.53% 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.
- Compliance officers ranks 73 of 390 occupations by median in District of Columbia, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and District of Columbia income tax is $80,471 for compliance officers, from $111,030. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $72,624. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $113,410 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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: Compliance Officers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $69,140 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $111,030 |
| Top tenth earn over | $156,750 |
| This salary | $111,030 |
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 | $80,471 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $86,940 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$16,843 |
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 | $101,834 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$23,265 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $111,030 as a midpoint for District of Columbia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $69,140 and the ninetieth is $156,750 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $80,471 take-home in District of Columbia comes from $111,030. 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 73 of 390.
- Two cautions on $72,624, the adjusted value of that $111,030 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 73 of 390 locally.
- The District of Columbia median of $111,030 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $69,140 to $156,750. 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 $80,471, from $111,030, 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 73 of 390 locally, and the state ranks 1 of 51 for it.
- This $72,624 adjusted figure, worked from $111,030, 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 73 of 390 in the state. The occupation ranks 73 of 390 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $69,140, the highest tenth $156,750, 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 $72,624 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and District of Columbia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $80,471 of this wage survives to your account.
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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($69,140) and the ninetieth ($156,750) 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 $72,624 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 $80,471 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.
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.