Highway Maintenance Workers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$54,649
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$10,651
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,339
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
$65,300
Kept after tax
$54,649
Worth in national money
$50,339
State rank
2
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for highway maintenance workers is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $65,300, putting the state 2 of 49 — about 29.92% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 270 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $65,300 the take-home is $54,649; in national-average money that behaves like $50,339. The average comes to $67,870, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For highway maintenance workers, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $65,300, ranking 2 of 49 and running about 29.92% 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.
- Highway maintenance workers ranks 270 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.
- Take-home for highway maintenance workers in Washington, on $65,300, is $54,649; deflated by the state's price level, $50,339. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $67,870 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Highway Maintenance Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $54,830 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $65,300 |
| Top tenth earn over | $80,060 |
| This salary | $65,300 |
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 | $54,649 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,649 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,899 |
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 | $65,300 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,134 |
| 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 $65,300. The published range is $54,830 up to $80,060, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $54,649, from $65,300, 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 270 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 $50,339, the adjusted value of that $65,300 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 270 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for highway maintenance workers in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $54,830 to $80,060. 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 $54,649 from $65,300. 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 270 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $50,339 — the adjusted value of that $65,300 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 270 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 $67,870, 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 — $54,830 at the tenth percentile, $80,060 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 $50,339 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $54,649 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $67,870. 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 ($54,830 to $80,060) 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 $50,339 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 $54,649 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.