Private Detectives and Investigators in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$56,708
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$16,012
22.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,179
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
$72,720
Kept after tax
$56,708
Worth in national money
$51,179
State rank
3
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. District of Columbia's middle earner gets $72,720, putting the state 3 of 49 — about 41.98% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 227 among 390 occupations District of Columbia publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $72,720, tax leaves $56,708 — and because District of Columbia is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $51,179 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $88,260, since top earners drag the number up.
- For private detectives and investigators, District of Columbia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $72,720, ranking 3 of 49 and running about 41.98% 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.
- Position 227 of 390 in District of Columbia places private detectives and investigators 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.
- After tax, $56,708 remains from the District of Columbia median of $72,720 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $51,179 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $88,260 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Private Detectives and Investigators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,790 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $72,720 |
| Top tenth earn over | $156,670 |
| This salary | $72,720 |
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 | $56,708 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $59,989 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,554 |
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 | $68,057 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,538 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $72,720 as a midpoint for District of Columbia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,790 and the ninetieth is $156,670 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $56,708 take-home in District of Columbia comes from $72,720. 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 227 of 390.
- Two cautions on $51,179, the adjusted value of that $72,720 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of District of Columbia. 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 227 of 390 locally.
- The District of Columbia median of $72,720 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,790 to $156,670. 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 $56,708, from $72,720, 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 227 of 390 locally, and the state ranks 3 of 49 for it.
- This $51,179 adjusted figure, worked from $72,720, 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 227 of 390 in the state. The occupation ranks 227 of 390 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $88,260, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $45,790 and the top tenth $156,670 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $51,179 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 $56,708 of this wage survives to your account.
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 49 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 District of Columbia is $88,260. 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 ($45,790) and the ninetieth ($156,670) 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 $51,179 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 $56,708 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.