Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators in Washington
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$65,673
after federal, FICA and Washington tax
Tax takes
$15,127
18.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$60,493
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
$80,800
Kept after tax
$65,673
Worth in national money
$60,493
State rank
3
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Washington pays this job a middle wage of $80,800, ranking 3 of 50 states and sitting about 34.62% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Washington, this sits in the middle: 186 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Washington is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $80,800 the take-home is $65,673; in national-average money that behaves like $60,493. The average comes to $82,770, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Washington's median for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators is $80,800, about 34.62% above the national figure and 3 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators ranks 186 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.
- Take-home for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators in Washington, on $80,800, is $65,673; deflated by the state's price level, $60,493. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $82,770 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $57,720 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,800 |
| Top tenth earn over | $106,270 |
| This salary | $80,800 |
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 | $65,673 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,673 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,089 |
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 | $80,800 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,792 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $80,800 as a midpoint for Washington, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $57,720 and the ninetieth is $106,270 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Washington's $65,673, worked from $80,800. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 186 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Washington, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $60,493, the adjusted value of that $80,800 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 186 of 493 in the state.
- The Washington median of $80,800 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $57,720 to $106,270. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Washington take-home of $65,673, on $80,800 for work ranking 186 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 186 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Washington, so $60,493 — the adjusted value of that $80,800 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 186 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $57,720 at the tenth percentile, $106,270 at the ninetieth.
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 $60,493 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $65,673 survives, because Washington levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($57,720 to $106,270) 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 $60,493 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 $65,673 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.