Packers and Packagers, Hand in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,693
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$5,527
14.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,036
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
$39,220
Kept after tax
$33,693
Worth in national money
$31,036
State rank
8
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for packers and packagers, hand is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $39,220, putting the state 8 of 51 — about 8.1% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 493 occupations Washington publishes, packers and packagers, hand lands at 483. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $39,220 the take-home is $33,693. But Washington costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $31,036 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $41,600, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For packers and packagers, hand, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $39,220, ranking 8 of 51 and running about 8.1% 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.
- Within Washington, this work ranks 483 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.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and Washington income tax is $33,693 for packers and packagers, hand, from $39,220. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $31,036. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $41,600 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Packers and Packagers, Hand
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,740 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,220 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,510 |
| This salary | $39,220 |
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 | $33,693 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,693 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,637 |
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 | $39,220 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,398 |
| 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 packers and packagers, hand in Washington earn under $39,220 and half over. The published range runs $34,740 at the tenth percentile to $53,510 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $33,693, from $39,220, 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 483 of 493 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $31,036 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 483.
- Figures are distribution medians for packers and packagers, hand in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $34,740 to $53,510; 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.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $33,693 from $39,220. 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 483 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $31,036, worked from $39,220, 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 483 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 $41,600 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $34,740 and the top tenth $53,510, so most people doing this work in Washington sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $31,036 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $33,693 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?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $41,600. 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 ($34,740 to $53,510) 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 $31,036 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 $33,693 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.