Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,980
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$9,510
16.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$46,038
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
$59,490
Kept after tax
$49,980
Worth in national money
$46,038
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays this job a middle wage of $59,490, ranking 15 of 51 states and sitting about 1.74% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 324 among 493 occupations Washington publishes pay for.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $59,490 the take-home is $49,980; in national-average money that behaves like $46,038. The average comes to $61,010, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington's median for postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators is $59,490, about 1.74% above the national figure and 15 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 324 of 493 in Washington places postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Take-home for postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators in Washington, on $59,490, is $49,980; deflated by the state's price level, $46,038. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $61,010 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,530 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,490 |
| Top tenth earn over | $75,280 |
| This salary | $59,490 |
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 | $49,980 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $49,980 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,395 |
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 | $59,490 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$6,524 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $59,490 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,530 and the ninetieth is $75,280 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Washington's $49,980, worked from $59,490. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 324 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $46,038, the adjusted value of that $59,490 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 324 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $59,490 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,530 to $75,280. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Washington take-home of $49,980, on $59,490 for work ranking 324 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 324 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $46,038 — the adjusted value of that $59,490 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 324 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $45,530 at the tenth percentile, $75,280 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 $46,038 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $49,980 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?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($45,530 to $75,280) 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 $46,038 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 $49,980 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.