Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$80,643
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$21,437
21.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$74,283
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
$102,080
Kept after tax
$80,643
Worth in national money
$74,283
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $102,080, putting the state 2 of 51 — about 33.95% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 493 occupations Washington reports, this job comes in at 110 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $102,080, tax leaves $80,643 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $74,283 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $104,140, since top earners drag the number up.
- For police and sheriff's patrol officers, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $102,080, ranking 2 of 51 and running about 33.95% 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.
- Police and sheriff's patrol officers ranks 110 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, $80,643 remains from the Washington median of $102,080 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $74,283 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $104,140 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $79,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $102,080 |
| Top tenth earn over | $132,200 |
| This salary | $102,080 |
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 | $80,643 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $80,643 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,705 |
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 | $102,080 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$12,024 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $102,080 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $79,120 and the ninetieth is $132,200 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $80,643, from $102,080, 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 110 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 $74,283 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 110.
- The Washington median of $102,080 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $79,120 to $132,200. 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 $80,643 from $102,080. 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 110 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $74,283, worked from $102,080, 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 110 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $79,120 at the bottom tenth to $132,200 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $74,283 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $80,643 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($79,120 to $132,200) 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 $74,283 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 $80,643 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.