Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,690
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$5,770
14.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,954
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
$40,460
Kept after tax
$34,690
Worth in national money
$31,954
State rank
4
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $40,460, putting the state 4 of 51 — about 15.37% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ranks 476. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $40,460 the take-home is $34,690; in national-average money that behaves like $31,954. The average comes to $42,450, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $40,460, ranking 4 of 51 and running about 15.37% 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.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ranks 476 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 hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks in Washington, on $40,460, is $34,690; deflated by the state's price level, $31,954. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $42,450 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,850 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $48,710 |
| This salary | $40,460 |
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 | $34,690 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,690 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,744 |
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 | $40,460 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,528 |
| 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 hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks in Washington earn under $40,460 and half over. The published range runs $36,850 at the tenth percentile to $48,710 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $34,690 take-home in Washington comes from $40,460. 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 476 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $31,954 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 476.
- Figures are distribution medians for hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,850 to $48,710; 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 $34,690, from $40,460, 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 476 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $31,954, worked from $40,460, 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 476 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 $42,450 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $36,850 at the tenth percentile, $48,710 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 $31,954 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $34,690 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $42,450. 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 ($36,850 to $48,710) 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 $31,954 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 $34,690 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.