Personal Financial Advisors in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$76,735
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$28,255
26.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$69,253
District of Columbia costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in District of Columbia — 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
$104,990
Kept after tax
$76,735
Worth in national money
$69,253
State rank
14
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for personal financial advisors is strong here. District of Columbia's middle earner gets $104,990, putting the state 14 of 49 — about 0.08% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 390 occupations District of Columbia reports, personal financial advisors comes in at 96 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- District of Columbia is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $104,990 the take-home is $76,735; in national-average money that behaves like $69,253. The average comes to $144,800, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For personal financial advisors, District of Columbia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $104,990, ranking 14 of 49 and running about 0.08% 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.
- Personal financial advisors ranks 96 of 390 occupations by median in District of Columbia, 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 personal financial advisors in District of Columbia, on $104,990, is $76,735; deflated by the state's price level, $69,253. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $144,800 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Personal Financial Advisors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $58,790 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $104,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $370,880 |
| This salary | $104,990 |
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 District of Columbia | $76,735 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $82,690 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$15,842 |
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 | $96,524 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$21,882 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $104,990 as a midpoint for District of Columbia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $58,790 and the ninetieth is $370,880 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $76,735 take-home in District of Columbia comes from $104,990. 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 96 of 390.
- One number stands for prices across all of District of Columbia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $69,253, the adjusted value of that $104,990 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 390 in the state.
- The District of Columbia median of $104,990 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $58,790 to $370,880. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $76,735, from $104,990, assumes a single District of Columbia 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 96 of 390 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for District of Columbia, so $69,253 — the adjusted value of that $104,990 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 390 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 $144,800 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $58,790 at the bottom tenth to $370,880 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 $69,253 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and District of Columbia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $76,735 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 District of Columbia is $144,800. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($58,790) and the ninetieth ($370,880) 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?
District of Columbia's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $69,253 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $76,735 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and District of Columbia income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.