Human Resources Specialists in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$68,311
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$16,239
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,923
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
$84,550
Kept after tax
$68,311
Worth in national money
$62,923
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for human resources specialists is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $84,550, putting the state 3 of 51 — about 11.34% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 168 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $84,550, tax leaves $68,311 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $62,923 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $94,000, since top earners drag the number up.
- For human resources specialists, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $84,550, ranking 3 of 51 and running about 11.34% 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.
- Human resources specialists ranks 168 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.
- After tax, $68,311 remains from the Washington median of $84,550 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $62,923 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $94,000 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Human Resources Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $57,030 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $84,550 |
| Top tenth earn over | $136,070 |
| This salary | $84,550 |
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 | $68,311 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $68,311 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,373 |
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 | $84,550 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,185 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $84,550 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $57,030 and the ninetieth is $136,070 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Washington's $68,311, worked from $84,550. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 168 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $62,923, the adjusted value of that $84,550 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 168 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $84,550 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $57,030 to $136,070. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Washington take-home of $68,311, on $84,550 for work ranking 168 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 168 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $62,923 — the adjusted value of that $84,550 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 168 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 $94,000, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $57,030, the highest tenth $136,070, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $62,923 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $68,311 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 $94,000. 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 ($57,030) and the ninetieth ($136,070) 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 $62,923 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 $68,311 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.