Paramedics in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$82,212
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$22,098
21.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$75,728
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
$104,310
Kept after tax
$82,212
Worth in national money
$75,728
State rank
1
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for paramedics. The middle earner takes $104,310, which ranks 1 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 72.13% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 493 occupations Washington reports, paramedics comes in at 96 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $104,310 the take-home is $82,212; in national-average money that behaves like $75,728. The average lands at $101,070, below the middle of the range.
- Washington ranks 1 of 51 states publishing a median for paramedics, at $104,310 — about 72.13% 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.
- Paramedics ranks 96 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.
- Take-home for paramedics in Washington, on $104,310, is $82,212; deflated by the state's price level, $75,728. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $101,070 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Paramedics
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $61,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $104,310 |
| Top tenth earn over | $133,040 |
| This salary | $104,310 |
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 | $82,212 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $82,212 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,874 |
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 | $104,310 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$12,258 |
| 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 paramedics in Washington earn under $104,310 and half over. The published range runs $61,010 at the tenth percentile to $133,040 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $82,212, from $104,310, 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 96 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 $75,728, the adjusted value of that $104,310 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 96 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for paramedics in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $61,010 to $133,040; 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 $82,212 from $104,310. 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 96 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $75,728 — the adjusted value of that $104,310 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 96 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 $101,070 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 — $61,010 at the tenth percentile, $133,040 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Washington costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $75,728 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $82,212 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 $101,070. 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 ($61,010 to $133,040) 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 $75,728 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 $82,212 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.