Physical Therapist Aides in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,918
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$5,582
14.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,243
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
$39,500
Kept after tax
$33,918
Worth in national money
$31,243
State rank
6
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for physical therapist aides is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $39,500, putting the state 6 of 50 — about 12.09% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 493 occupations Washington publishes, physical therapist aides lands at 481. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $39,500 the take-home is $33,918; in national-average money that behaves like $31,243. The average comes to $44,430, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For physical therapist aides, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $39,500, ranking 6 of 50 and running about 12.09% 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 481 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.
- Take-home for physical therapist aides in Washington, on $39,500, is $33,918; deflated by the state's price level, $31,243. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $44,430 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Physical Therapist Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,930 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,100 |
| This salary | $39,500 |
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 | $33,918 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,918 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,661 |
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 | $39,500 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,428 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $39,500 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,930 and the ninetieth is $58,100 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $33,918, from $39,500, 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 481 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $31,243, the adjusted value of that $39,500 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 481 of 493 locally.
- The Washington median of $39,500 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,930 to $58,100. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $33,918 from $39,500. 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 481 of 493 locally.
- This $31,243 adjusted figure, worked from $39,500, 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 481 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 481 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $44,430, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $35,930 at the tenth percentile, $58,100 at the ninetieth.
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 $31,243 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $33,918 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $44,430. 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 ($35,930 to $58,100) 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 $31,243 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 $33,918 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.
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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.