Database Architects in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$99,273
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$29,487
22.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$91,444
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
$128,760
Kept after tax
$99,273
Worth in national money
$91,444
State rank
32
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Washington pays database architects a middle wage of $128,760, 32 of 46 states and about 7.7% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 493 occupations Washington reports, database architects comes in at 53 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $128,760 the take-home is $99,273; in national-average money that behaves like $91,444. The average comes to $135,800, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington's $128,760 median for database architects places it 32 of 46 states, about 7.7% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Database architects ranks 53 of 493 occupations by median in Washington, 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.
- Take-home for database architects in Washington, on $128,760, is $99,273; deflated by the state's price level, $91,444. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $135,800 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Database Architects
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $101,970 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $128,760 |
| Top tenth earn over | $195,590 |
| This salary | $128,760 |
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 | $99,273 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $99,273 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,715 |
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 | $128,760 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,999 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $128,760 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $101,970 and the ninetieth is $195,590 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $99,273 take-home in Washington comes from $128,760. 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 53 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $91,444, the adjusted value of that $128,760 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 53 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $128,760 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $101,970 to $195,590. 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 $99,273, from $128,760, assumes a single Washington 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 53 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 32 of 46 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $91,444 — the adjusted value of that $128,760 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 53 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $135,800, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $101,970 at the bottom tenth to $195,590 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $91,444 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $99,273 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.
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 46 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 Washington is $135,800. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($101,970) and the ninetieth ($195,590) 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?
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 $91,444 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 $99,273 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.
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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.