Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,648
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$7,472
15.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,363
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
$49,120
Kept after tax
$41,648
Worth in national money
$38,363
State rank
1
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Washington's middle earner gets $49,120, putting the state 1 of 51 — about 33.55% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 493 occupations Washington publishes, this job lands at 396. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- The wage here flatters the reality. From $49,120 the take-home is $41,648. But Washington costs more than the national average, so that money behaves more like $38,363 would elsewhere. Worth knowing before comparing offers across states. The average is higher, $50,650, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For teaching assistants, except postsecondary, Washington sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $49,120, ranking 1 of 51 and running about 33.55% 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.
- Within Washington, this work ranks 396 of 493 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Retained pay after federal, FICA and Washington income tax is $41,648 for teaching assistants, except postsecondary, from $49,120. The state's price level exceeds the national average, so the price-adjusted equivalent is $38,363. ⚠️ This is purchasing power and not a wage; cross-state offer comparisons that stop at the nominal figure systematically overvalue high-cost states. The mean of $50,650 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,870 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,810 |
| This salary | $49,120 |
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 | $41,648 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,648 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,495 |
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 | $49,120 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,437 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Washington earn less than $49,120. The published range is $37,870 up to $62,810, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $41,648, from $49,120, 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 396 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $38,363, the adjusted value of that $49,120 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 396 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for teaching assistants, except postsecondary in Washington the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $37,870 to $62,810. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $41,648 from $49,120. 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 396 of 493 locally.
- This $38,363 adjusted figure, worked from $49,120, 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 396 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 396 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 $50,650, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $37,870 and the top tenth $62,810, so most people doing this work in Washington sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $38,363 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $41,648 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $50,650. 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 ($37,870 to $62,810) 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 $38,363 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 $41,648 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.