Fast Food and Counter Workers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,480
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$5,230
13.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,918
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
$37,710
Kept after tax
$32,480
Worth in national money
$29,918
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for fast food and counter workers. The middle earner takes $37,710, which ranks 2 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 20.87% above the national middle.
- Against 493 occupations Washington publishes, fast food and counter workers lands at 492. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $37,710, tax leaves $32,480 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $29,918 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $40,390, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington ranks 2 of 51 states publishing a median for fast food and counter workers, at $37,710 — about 20.87% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Washington, this work ranks 492 of 493 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After tax, $32,480 remains from the Washington median of $37,710 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $29,918 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $40,390 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Fast Food and Counter Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,050 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,710 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,860 |
| This salary | $37,710 |
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 | $32,480 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,480 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,506 |
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 | $37,710 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,240 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,710 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,050 and the ninetieth is $47,860 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $32,480, from $37,710, 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 492 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $29,918, the adjusted value of that $37,710 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 492 of 493 locally.
- The Washington median of $37,710 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,050 to $47,860. 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 $32,480 from $37,710. 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 492 of 493 locally.
- This $29,918 adjusted figure, worked from $37,710, 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 492 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 492 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 $40,390, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $35,050 at the tenth percentile, $47,860 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 $29,918 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $32,480 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?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 $40,390. 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 ($35,050 to $47,860) 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 $29,918 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 $32,480 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.