Slaughterers and Meat Packers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,418
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$6,682
14.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,388
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
$45,100
Kept after tax
$38,418
Worth in national money
$35,388
State rank
11
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays slaughterers and meat packers a middle wage of $45,100, ranking 11 of 47 states and sitting about 12.38% above the national middle.
- Within Washington this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, slaughterers and meat packers ranks 447. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $45,100 the take-home is $38,418; in national-average money that behaves like $35,388. The average comes to $46,980, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington's median for slaughterers and meat packers is $45,100, about 12.38% above the national figure and 11 of 47 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Against every occupation Washington reports, slaughterers and meat packers ranks 447 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 slaughterers and meat packers in Washington, on $45,100, is $38,418; deflated by the state's price level, $35,388. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $46,980 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Slaughterers and Meat Packers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,610 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,100 |
| Top tenth earn over | $55,740 |
| This salary | $45,100 |
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 | $38,418 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,418 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,147 |
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 | $45,100 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,015 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $45,100 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $40,610 and the ninetieth is $55,740 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $38,418, from $45,100, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 447 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $35,388, the adjusted value of that $45,100 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 447 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $45,100 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $40,610 to $55,740. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $38,418 from $45,100. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 447 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $35,388 — the adjusted value of that $45,100 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 447 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 $46,980, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $40,610 at the tenth percentile, $55,740 at the ninetieth.
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 $35,388 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $38,418 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 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 $46,980. 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 ($40,610 to $55,740) 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 $35,388 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 $38,418 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.