Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,935
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$14,395
18.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$58,893
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
$78,330
Kept after tax
$63,935
Worth in national money
$58,893
State rank
29
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Washington is 29 of 50 states for this job, with a middle wage of $78,330. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 211 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $78,330, tax leaves $63,935 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $58,893 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $80,470, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington ranks 29 of 50 for psychology teachers, postsecondary at $78,330. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Psychology teachers, postsecondary ranks 211 of 493 occupations in Washington by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- After tax, $63,935 remains from the Washington median of $78,330 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $58,893 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $80,470 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,180 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $78,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $108,560 |
| This salary | $78,330 |
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 | $63,935 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,935 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,901 |
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 | $78,330 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,533 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $78,330 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $50,180 and the ninetieth is $108,560 — 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 $63,935, worked from $78,330. 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 211 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $58,893, the adjusted value of that $78,330 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 211 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $78,330 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $50,180 to $108,560. 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 $63,935, on $78,330 for work ranking 211 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 211 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $58,893 — the adjusted value of that $78,330 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 211 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $50,180, the highest tenth $108,560, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $58,893 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $63,935 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.
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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($50,180) and the ninetieth ($108,560) 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?
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 $58,893 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 $63,935 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.