File Clerks in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,004
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$6,826
14.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,928
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
$45,830
Kept after tax
$39,004
Worth in national money
$35,928
State rank
12
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for file clerks. The middle earner takes $45,830, which ranks 12 of 49 states with published figures. That is about 5.11% above the national middle.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, file clerks ranks 438. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $45,830 the take-home is $39,004; in national-average money that behaves like $35,928. The average comes to $49,030, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington ranks 12 of 49 states publishing a median for file clerks, at $45,830 — about 5.11% 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.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, file clerks ranks 438 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Take-home for file clerks in Washington, on $45,830, is $39,004; deflated by the state's price level, $35,928. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $49,030 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: File Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,410 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,830 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,670 |
| This salary | $45,830 |
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 | $39,004 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,004 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,210 |
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 | $45,830 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,092 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Washington earn less than $45,830. The published range is $36,410 up to $63,670, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $39,004, from $45,830, 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 438 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $35,928, the adjusted value of that $45,830 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 438 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for file clerks in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $36,410 to $63,670. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $39,004 from $45,830. 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 438 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $35,928 — the adjusted value of that $45,830 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 438 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 $49,030, 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 — $36,410 at the tenth percentile, $63,670 at the ninetieth.
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 $35,928 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $39,004 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 49 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 $49,030. 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 ($36,410 to $63,670) 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 $35,928 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 $39,004 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.