Tour and Travel Guides in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,698
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$8,462
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,094
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
$54,160
Kept after tax
$45,698
Worth in national money
$42,094
State rank
1
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Washington is one of the better-paying states for tour and travel guides. The middle earner takes $54,160, which ranks 1 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 42.08% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 359 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 $54,160, tax leaves $45,698 — and because Washington is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $42,094 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $56,820, since top earners drag the number up.
- Washington ranks 1 of 50 states publishing a median for tour and travel guides, at $54,160 — about 42.08% 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.
- Tour and travel guides ranks 359 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, $45,698 remains from the Washington median of $54,160 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $42,094 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $56,820 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Tour and Travel Guides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $54,160 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,790 |
| This salary | $54,160 |
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 | $45,698 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,698 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,933 |
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 | $54,160 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,965 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of tour and travel guides in Washington earn under $54,160 and half over. The published range runs $37,540 at the tenth percentile to $76,790 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Washington the take-home figure of $45,698, from $54,160, 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 359 of 493 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $42,094 uses one figure for the whole of Washington. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 359.
- Figures are distribution medians for tour and travel guides in Washington, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,540 to $76,790; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Washington is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $45,698 from $54,160. 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 359 of 493 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $42,094, worked from $54,160, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Washington address, on work sitting at 359 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 $56,820 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 $37,540, the highest tenth $76,790, 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 $42,094 of national purchasing power.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $45,698 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 50 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 $56,820. 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 ($37,540) and the ninetieth ($76,790) 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 $42,094 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 $45,698 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.