Museum Technicians and Conservators in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,077
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$9,533
16.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,127
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
$59,610
Kept after tax
$50,077
Worth in national money
$46,127
State rank
7
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $59,610, putting the state 7 of 45 — about 15.88% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 322 among 493 occupations Washington publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $59,610, tax leaves $50,077 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $46,127 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $60,540, since top earners drag the number up.
- For museum technicians and conservators, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $59,610, ranking 7 of 45 and running about 15.88% 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 322 of 493 in Washington places museum technicians and conservators 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, $50,077 remains from the Washington median of $59,610 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $46,127 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $60,540 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: Museum Technicians and Conservators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,430 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,610 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,650 |
| This salary | $59,610 |
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 | $50,077 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,077 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,405 |
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 | $59,610 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,537 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $59,610 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $42,430 and the ninetieth is $77,650 — 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 $50,077, worked from $59,610. 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 322 of 493.
- Two cautions on $46,127, the adjusted value of that $59,610 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Washington. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 322 of 493 locally.
- The Washington median of $59,610 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $42,430 to $77,650. 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 $50,077, on $59,610 for work ranking 322 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 322 of 493 in the state.
- This $46,127 adjusted figure, worked from $59,610, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 322 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 322 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $42,430 at the bottom tenth to $77,650 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $46,127 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $50,077 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. 45 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($42,430 to $77,650) 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 $46,127 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 $50,077 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.