Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,737
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$11,993
20.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,082
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
$59,730
Kept after tax
$47,737
Worth in national money
$43,082
State rank
5
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. District of Columbia's middle earner gets $59,730, putting the state 5 of 51 — about 22.98% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 286 among 390 occupations District of Columbia publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $59,730, tax leaves $47,737 — and because District of Columbia is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $43,082 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $63,660, since top earners drag the number up.
- For inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers, District of Columbia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $59,730, ranking 5 of 51 and running about 22.98% 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.
- Position 286 of 390 in District of Columbia places inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers 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, $47,737 remains from the District of Columbia median of $59,730 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $43,082 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $63,660 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,130 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,730 |
| Top tenth earn over | $91,510 |
| This salary | $59,730 |
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 | $47,737 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,173 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,549 |
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 | $56,698 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,339 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in District of Columbia earn less than $59,730. The published range is $41,130 up to $91,510, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In District of Columbia the take-home figure of $47,737, from $59,730, 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 286 of 390 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of District of Columbia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $43,082, the adjusted value of that $59,730 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 286 of 390 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers in District of Columbia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $41,130 to $91,510. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for District of Columbia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $47,737 from $59,730. 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 286 of 390 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for District of Columbia, so $43,082 — the adjusted value of that $59,730 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 286 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 $63,660 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $41,130 and the top tenth $91,510 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $43,082 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; District of Columbia then takes its own share, leaving $47,737.
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 District of Columbia is $63,660. 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 ($41,130) and the ninetieth ($91,510) 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?
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 $43,082 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 $47,737 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.