Soil and Plant Scientists in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,089
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$14,881
18.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$59,956
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
$79,970
Kept after tax
$65,089
Worth in national money
$59,956
State rank
13
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for soil and plant scientists. The middle earner takes $79,970, which ranks 13 of 46 states with published figures. That is about 1.42% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 191 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 $79,970, tax leaves $65,089 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $59,956 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $89,180, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington ranks 13 of 46 states publishing a median for soil and plant scientists, at $79,970 — about 1.42% 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.
- Soil and plant scientists ranks 191 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, $65,089 remains from the Washington median of $79,970 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $59,956 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $89,180 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Soil and Plant Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $63,210 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,970 |
| Top tenth earn over | $131,220 |
| This salary | $79,970 |
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 | $65,089 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,089 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,026 |
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 | $79,970 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,705 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $79,970 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $63,210 and the ninetieth is $131,220 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $65,089 take-home in Washington comes from $79,970. 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 191 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $59,956, the adjusted value of that $79,970 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 191 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $79,970 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $63,210 to $131,220. 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 $65,089, from $79,970, 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 191 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 13 of 46 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $59,956 — the adjusted value of that $79,970 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 191 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $89,180 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $63,210, the highest tenth $131,220, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $59,956 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $65,089 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?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 46 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $89,180. 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 ($63,210) and the ninetieth ($131,220) 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 $59,956 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 $65,089 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.