School Bus Monitors in Washington

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,192
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$6,138
14.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,338
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
$42,330
Kept after tax
$36,192
Worth in national money
$33,338
State rank
1
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for school bus monitors. The middle earner takes $42,330, which ranks 1 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 20.6% above the national middle.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, school bus monitors ranks 463. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $42,330 the take-home is $36,192; in national-average money that behaves like $33,338. The average comes to $44,330, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington ranks 1 of 50 states publishing a median for school bus monitors, at $42,330 — about 20.6% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, school bus monitors ranks 463 of 493, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Take-home for school bus monitors in Washington, on $42,330, is $36,192; deflated by the state's price level, $33,338. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $44,330 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: School Bus Monitors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,770 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $42,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $52,230 |
| This salary | $42,330 |
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 | $36,192 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $36,192 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,907 |
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 | $42,330 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,725 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $42,330 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,770 and the ninetieth is $52,230 — 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 $36,192, worked from $42,330. 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 463 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $33,338 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 463.
- The Washington median of $42,330 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,770 to $52,230. 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 $36,192, on $42,330 for work ranking 463 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 463 of 493 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $33,338, worked from $42,330, 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 463 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $44,330, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $35,770 at the tenth percentile, $52,230 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Washington costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $33,338 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $36,192 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 $44,330. 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 ($35,770 to $52,230) 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 $33,338 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 $36,192 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.