Environmental Engineers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$97,018
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$28,442
22.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$89,366
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
$125,460
Kept after tax
$97,018
Worth in national money
$89,366
State rank
4
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for environmental engineers is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $125,460, putting the state 4 of 50 — about 17.13% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Washington. It ranks 62 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $125,460, tax leaves $97,018 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $89,366 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $127,330, since top earners drag the number up.
- For environmental engineers, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $125,460, ranking 4 of 50 and running about 17.13% 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.
- Within Washington, environmental engineers ranks 62 of 493 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, $97,018 remains from the Washington median of $125,460 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $89,366 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $127,330 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Environmental Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $80,660 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $125,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $175,610 |
| This salary | $125,460 |
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 | $97,018 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $97,018 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,472 |
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 | $125,460 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,569 |
| 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 environmental engineers in Washington earn under $125,460 and half over. The published range runs $80,660 at the tenth percentile to $175,610 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $97,018 take-home in Washington comes from $125,460. 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 62 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $89,366, the adjusted value of that $125,460 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 62 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for environmental engineers in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $80,660 to $175,610; 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 $97,018, from $125,460, 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 62 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $89,366 — the adjusted value of that $125,460 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 62 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $80,660, the highest tenth $175,610, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $89,366 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $97,018 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?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($80,660) and the ninetieth ($175,610) 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 $89,366 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 $97,018 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.