Printing Press Operators in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$42,194
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$7,606
15.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,867
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
$49,800
Kept after tax
$42,194
Worth in national money
$38,867
State rank
4
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for printing press operators is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $49,800, putting the state 4 of 51 — about 8.78% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 493 occupations Washington publishes, printing press operators lands at 391. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $49,800, tax leaves $42,194 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $38,867 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $53,310, since top earners drag the number up.
- For printing press operators, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $49,800, ranking 4 of 51 and running about 8.78% 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 391 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.
- After tax, $42,194 remains from the Washington median of $49,800 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $38,867 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $53,310 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Printing Press Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,660 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,800 |
| Top tenth earn over | $70,030 |
| This salary | $49,800 |
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 | $42,194 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,194 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,554 |
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 | $49,800 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,508 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $49,800 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $39,660 and the ninetieth is $70,030 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $42,194 take-home in Washington comes from $49,800. 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 391 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $38,867, the adjusted value of that $49,800 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 391 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $49,800 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $39,660 to $70,030. 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 $42,194, from $49,800, assumes a single Washington 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 391 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $38,867 — the adjusted value of that $49,800 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 391 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 $53,310, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $39,660 at the bottom tenth to $70,030 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $38,867 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $42,194 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.
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 $53,310. 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 ($39,660 to $70,030) 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 $38,867 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 $42,194 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.