Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,149
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$9,551
16.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,194
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
$59,700
Kept after tax
$50,149
Worth in national money
$46,194
State rank
18
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Washington pays this job around $59,700 at the midpoint, 18 of 48 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 319 among 493 occupations Washington publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $59,700, tax leaves $50,149 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $46,194 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $61,710, since top earners drag the number up.
- For morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers the Washington median is $59,700, ranking 18 of 48 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 319 of 493 in Washington places morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers 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, $50,149 remains from the Washington median of $59,700 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $46,194 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $61,710 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,290 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,470 |
| This salary | $59,700 |
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 | $50,149 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,149 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,413 |
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 | $59,700 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,546 |
| 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 morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers in Washington earn under $59,700 and half over. The published range runs $45,290 at the tenth percentile to $77,470 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $50,149 take-home in Washington comes from $59,700. 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 319 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $46,194 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 319.
- Figures are distribution medians for morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $45,290 to $77,470; 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 $50,149, from $59,700, 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 319 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 18 of 48 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $46,194, worked from $59,700, 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 319 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 $61,710 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 — $45,290 at the tenth percentile, $77,470 at the ninetieth.
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 $46,194 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $50,149 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 $61,710. 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 ($45,290 to $77,470) 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 $46,194 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 $50,149 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.