Technical Writers in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$82,043
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$22,027
21.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$75,573
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
$104,070
Kept after tax
$82,043
Worth in national money
$75,573
State rank
4
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays technical writers a middle wage of $104,070, ranking 4 of 45 states and sitting about 15.13% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Washington. It ranks 98 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $104,070, tax leaves $82,043 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $75,573 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $109,840, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington's median for technical writers is $104,070, about 15.13% above the national figure and 4 of 45 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Washington, technical writers ranks 98 of 493 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- After tax, $82,043 remains from the Washington median of $104,070 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $75,573 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $109,840 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Technical Writers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $60,420 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $104,070 |
| Top tenth earn over | $169,810 |
| This salary | $104,070 |
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 | $82,043 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $82,043 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,856 |
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 | $104,070 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$12,232 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $104,070 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $60,420 and the ninetieth is $169,810 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $82,043 take-home in Washington comes from $104,070. 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 98 of 493.
- Two cautions on $75,573, the adjusted value of that $104,070 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 98 of 493 locally.
- The Washington median of $104,070 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $60,420 to $169,810. 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 $82,043, from $104,070, 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 98 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 45 for it.
- This $75,573 adjusted figure, worked from $104,070, 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 98 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 98 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 $109,840 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 $60,420, the highest tenth $169,810, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $75,573 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $82,043 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 45 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 $109,840. 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 ($60,420) and the ninetieth ($169,810) 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 $75,573 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 $82,043 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.