Security Guards in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,025
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$7,075
15.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,868
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
$47,100
Kept after tax
$40,025
Worth in national money
$36,868
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for security guards is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $47,100, putting the state 3 of 51 — about 23.88% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, security guards ranks 424. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $47,100, tax leaves $40,025 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $36,868 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $50,770, since top earners drag the number up.
- For security guards, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $47,100, ranking 3 of 51 and running about 23.88% 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.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, security guards ranks 424 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.
- After tax, $40,025 remains from the Washington median of $47,100 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $36,868 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $50,770 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Security Guards
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,720 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $47,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $68,390 |
| This salary | $47,100 |
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 | $40,025 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,025 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,320 |
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 | $47,100 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,225 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $47,100 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,720 and the ninetieth is $68,390 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $40,025 take-home in Washington comes from $47,100. 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 424 of 493.
- Two cautions on $36,868, the adjusted value of that $47,100 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Washington. 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 424 of 493 locally.
- The Washington median of $47,100 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,720 to $68,390. 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 $40,025, from $47,100, 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 424 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 3 of 51 for it.
- This $36,868 adjusted figure, worked from $47,100, 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 424 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 424 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 $50,770, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $37,720 at the bottom tenth to $68,390 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 $36,868 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $40,025 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 $50,770. 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 ($37,720 to $68,390) 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 $36,868 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 $40,025 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.