Optometrists in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$118,958
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$38,602
24.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$109,576
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
$157,560
Kept after tax
$118,958
Worth in national money
$109,576
State rank
8
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays optometrists a middle wage of $157,560, ranking 8 of 51 states and sitting about 15.37% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 493 occupations Washington reports, optometrists comes in at 26 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $157,560, tax leaves $118,958 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $109,576 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $159,380, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington's median for optometrists is $157,560, about 15.37% above the national figure and 8 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.
- Optometrists ranks 26 of 493 occupations by median in Washington, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- After tax, $118,958 remains from the Washington median of $157,560 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $109,576 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $159,380 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Optometrists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $103,880 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $157,560 |
| Top tenth earn over | $217,900 |
| This salary | $157,560 |
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 | $118,958 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $118,958 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$12,840 |
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 | $157,560 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$18,255 |
| 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 $157,560. The published range is $103,880 up to $217,900, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $118,958 take-home in Washington comes from $157,560. 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 26 of 493.
- Two cautions on $109,576, the adjusted value of that $157,560 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 26 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for optometrists in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $103,880 to $217,900. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $118,958, from $157,560, 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 26 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 8 of 51 for it.
- This $109,576 adjusted figure, worked from $157,560, 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 26 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 26 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $103,880 at the bottom tenth to $217,900 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
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 $109,576 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $118,958 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($103,880) and the ninetieth ($217,900) 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?
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 $109,576 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 $118,958 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.