Emergency Management Directors in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$100,654
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$30,126
23.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$92,716
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
$130,780
Kept after tax
$100,654
Worth in national money
$92,716
State rank
3
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $130,780, putting the state 3 of 47 — about 40.13% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 493 occupations Washington reports, this job comes in at 45 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $130,780 the take-home is $100,654; in national-average money that behaves like $92,716. The average comes to $136,430, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For emergency management directors, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $130,780, ranking 3 of 47 and running about 40.13% 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.
- Emergency management directors ranks 45 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 emergency management directors in Washington, on $130,780, is $100,654; deflated by the state's price level, $92,716. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $136,430 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Emergency Management Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $94,020 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $130,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $184,740 |
| This salary | $130,780 |
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 | $100,654 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $100,654 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,864 |
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 | $130,780 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$15,262 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
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 emergency management directors in Washington earn under $130,780 and half over. The published range runs $94,020 at the tenth percentile to $184,740 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $100,654 take-home in Washington comes from $130,780. 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 45 of 493.
- Two cautions on $92,716, the adjusted value of that $130,780 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 45 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for emergency management directors in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $94,020 to $184,740; 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.
- Retained pay of $100,654, from $130,780, 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 45 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 3 of 47 for it.
- This $92,716 adjusted figure, worked from $130,780, 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 45 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 45 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $136,430, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $94,020 at the tenth percentile, $184,740 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Washington costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $92,716 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $100,654 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 47 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 $136,430. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($94,020 to $184,740) 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 $92,716 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 $100,654 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.