Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$77,984
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$20,316
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$71,834
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
$98,300
Kept after tax
$77,984
Worth in national money
$71,834
State rank
5
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $98,300, putting the state 5 of 51 — about 19.56% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 132 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $98,300, tax leaves $77,984 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $71,834 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $103,580, since top earners drag the number up.
- For environmental scientists and specialists, including health, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $98,300, ranking 5 of 51 and running about 19.56% 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.
- Environmental scientists and specialists, including health ranks 132 of 493 occupations in Washington by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- After tax, $77,984 remains from the Washington median of $98,300 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $71,834 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $103,580 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $71,140 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $98,300 |
| Top tenth earn over | $153,960 |
| This salary | $98,300 |
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 | $77,984 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $77,984 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,417 |
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 | $98,300 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,627 |
| 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 scientists and specialists, including health in Washington earn under $98,300 and half over. The published range runs $71,140 at the tenth percentile to $153,960 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $77,984 take-home in Washington comes from $98,300. 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 132 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $71,834 uses one figure for the whole of Washington. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 132.
- Figures are distribution medians for environmental scientists and specialists, including health in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $71,140 to $153,960; 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 $77,984, from $98,300, 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 132 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 5 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $71,834, worked from $98,300, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Washington address, on work sitting at 132 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 $103,580, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $71,140, the highest tenth $153,960, 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 $71,834 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $77,984 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.
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 $103,580. 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 ($71,140) and the ninetieth ($153,960) 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 $71,834 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 $77,984 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.