Office Clerks, General in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,757
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$7,743
15.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,385
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
$50,500
Kept after tax
$42,757
Worth in national money
$39,385
State rank
4
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for office clerks, general. The middle earner takes $50,500, which ranks 4 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 12.2% above the national middle.
- Against 493 occupations Washington publishes, office clerks, general lands at 383. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $50,500, tax leaves $42,757 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $39,385 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $53,940, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington ranks 4 of 51 states publishing a median for office clerks, general, at $50,500 — about 12.2% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Within Washington, this work ranks 383 of 493 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After tax, $42,757 remains from the Washington median of $50,500 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $39,385 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $53,940 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Office Clerks, General
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $38,600 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $73,140 |
| This salary | $50,500 |
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 | $42,757 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,757 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,615 |
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 | $50,500 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,581 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Washington earn less than $50,500. The published range is $38,600 up to $73,140, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $42,757, from $50,500, 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 383 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $39,385, the adjusted value of that $50,500 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 383 of 493 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for office clerks, general in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $38,600 to $73,140. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $42,757 from $50,500. 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 383 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $39,385 — the adjusted value of that $50,500 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 383 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 $53,940 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 $38,600 at the bottom tenth to $73,140 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Washington run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $39,385 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $42,757 of this wage reaches your account, because Washington takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
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 $53,940. 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 ($38,600 to $73,140) 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 $39,385 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 $42,757 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.