Court, Municipal, and License Clerks in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$54,150
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$10,530
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,880
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
$64,680
Kept after tax
$54,150
Worth in national money
$49,880
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for court, municipal, and license clerks is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $64,680, putting the state 2 of 51 — about 32.81% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Court, municipal, and license clerks ranks 272 among 493 occupations Washington publishes pay for.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $64,680 the take-home is $54,150; in national-average money that behaves like $49,880. The average comes to $66,090, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For court, municipal, and license clerks, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $64,680, ranking 2 of 51 and running about 32.81% 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.
- Position 272 of 493 in Washington places court, municipal, and license clerks in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Take-home for court, municipal, and license clerks in Washington, on $64,680, is $54,150; deflated by the state's price level, $49,880. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $66,090 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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: Court, Municipal, and License Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $49,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,680 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,720 |
| This salary | $64,680 |
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 | $54,150 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,150 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,845 |
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 | $64,680 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,069 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $64,680 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $49,970 and the ninetieth is $80,720 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $54,150, from $64,680, 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 272 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $49,880, the adjusted value of that $64,680 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 272 of 493 locally.
- The Washington median of $64,680 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $49,970 to $80,720. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $54,150 from $64,680. 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 272 of 493 locally.
- This $49,880 adjusted figure, worked from $64,680, 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 272 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 272 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $49,970 at the tenth percentile, $80,720 at the ninetieth.
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 $49,880 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $54,150 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($49,970 to $80,720) 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 $49,880 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 $54,150 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.