Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,996
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$9,514
16.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,053
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
$59,510
Kept after tax
$49,996
Worth in national money
$46,053
State rank
1
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $59,510, putting the state 1 of 50 — about 66.28% ahead of the national figure.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 493 occupations Washington reports figures for, this is number 323.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $59,510, tax leaves $49,996 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $46,053 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $63,800, since top earners drag the number up.
- For hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $59,510, ranking 1 of 50 and running about 66.28% 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.
- In Washington's occupational distribution, hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists sits at 323 of 493 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- After tax, $49,996 remains from the Washington median of $59,510 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $46,053 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $63,800 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,510 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,970 |
| This salary | $59,510 |
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 | $49,996 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,996 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,397 |
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 | $59,510 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,527 |
| 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 $59,510. The published range is $36,830 up to $99,970, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $49,996, from $59,510, 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 323 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $46,053, the adjusted value of that $59,510 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 323 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $36,830 to $99,970. 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 $49,996 from $59,510. 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 323 of 493 locally.
- This $46,053 adjusted figure, worked from $59,510, 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 323 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 323 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $63,800 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $36,830 at the bottom tenth to $99,970 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $46,053 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $49,996 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 50 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 $63,800. 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 ($36,830) and the ninetieth ($99,970) 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 $46,053 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 $49,996 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.