Industrial Machinery Mechanics in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$66,022
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$21,648
24.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$59,585
District of Columbia costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in District of Columbia — 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
$87,670
Kept after tax
$66,022
Worth in national money
$59,585
State rank
1
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. District of Columbia pays this job a middle wage of $87,670, ranking 1 of 51 states and sitting about 35.88% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 160 among 390 occupations District of Columbia publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $87,670, tax leaves $66,022 — and because District of Columbia is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $59,585 would nationally. Here the average runs under the middle, at $83,870.
- District of Columbia's median for industrial machinery mechanics is $87,670, about 35.88% above the national figure and 1 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 160 of 390 in District of Columbia places industrial machinery mechanics in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $66,022 remains from the District of Columbia median of $87,670 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $59,585 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $83,870 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Industrial Machinery Mechanics
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $54,310 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $87,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $106,200 |
| This salary | $87,670 |
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 District of Columbia | $66,022 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $70,506 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$12,971 |
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 | $81,297 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$17,917 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $87,670 as a midpoint for District of Columbia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $54,310 and the ninetieth is $106,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $66,022 take-home in District of Columbia comes from $87,670. 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 160 of 390.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $59,585 uses one figure for the whole of District of Columbia. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 390 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 160.
- The District of Columbia median of $87,670 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $54,310 to $106,200. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $66,022, from $87,670, assumes a single District of Columbia 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 160 of 390 locally, and the state ranks 1 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $59,585, worked from $87,670, 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 District of Columbia address, on work sitting at 160 of 390 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 $83,870 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $54,310 at the bottom tenth to $106,200 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. District of Columbia costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $59,585 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and District of Columbia's own levy, $66,022 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 District of Columbia is $83,870. 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 ($54,310 to $106,200) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to District of Columbia rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
District of Columbia's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $59,585 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $66,022 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and District of Columbia income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
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.