Average salary in Seattle in 2026, and what actually counts as good

A typical job in the Seattle metro pays $72,610 a year before tax. $112,650 puts you in the top quarter, and $167,440 in the top 10%.

Those figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025, the latest release. They cover every job in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, from downtown Seattle and Bellevue to Everett, Kent and Tacoma. The national median for all jobs is $50,980, so the typical Seattle salary is about 42% higher. Among the 36 US metros with more than a million jobs, only San Jose and San Francisco have a higher median.

Washington also has no state income tax on wages, which is usually the first thing people mention when they compare an offer here with one somewhere else. We worked out what that is worth at each point of the pay scale. On the typical salary, it comes to about $190 a month compared with the same pay in California, and it only becomes large near the top. This guide starts with what specific jobs pay, then shows where any salary sits on the Seattle scale, what the tax difference adds up to, and how much is left once rent is paid.

What six senior jobs pay in Seattle

We ran six realistic resumes through PayScope's market value model with the location set to Seattle. Each belongs to a fictional professional with ten to twelve years of experience, at senior level. Only one of the six is a tech job, on purpose: software is the metro's largest occupation, but most people here work in hospitals, aerospace, construction, logistics and finance. PayScope reads the skills and experience in a resume and compares them with people and job openings in the area, so the ranges below describe what the market pays for that kind of profile in Seattle right now.

Source: PayScope market value model, one resume per role, senior level, location Seattle, WA, run on October 29, 2026. Figures in thousands, as the model displays them.

Five of the six medians sit between $128,000 and $155,000. The software engineer stands apart at $190,000, and the top quarter of that role starts at $215,000. A senior engineer in the bottom quarter earns about $45,000 less than one in the top quarter for what is nominally the same job, and most of that gap comes from skills: which systems the engineer owns, how much of the stack, and whether the work is infrastructure or product. For how pay rises from entry to lead level nationally, see our software engineer salary guide.

The nurse and the financial analyst land on the same median, $128,000, from different resumes. The nurse figure matches the BLS almost exactly: the median for all registered nurses in the Seattle metro is $128,260. These are senior roles, which is why every median here is far above the metro's typical $72,610. Earlier in a career, pay for the same jobs is lower.

How pay is spread across the Seattle area

The BLS surveys employers about what they pay and estimates the pay level at each point of the scale, from the lowest-paid tenth of jobs in the metro to the highest. Find your own salary in the table to see where you sit among everyone working here, whatever their job.

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, all occupations. The metro has 2,086,210 jobs in the survey. The average (mean) is $91,790, or $44.13 an hour, pulled up by the highest earners, which is why we use the median as "typical".

As a monthly figure, the typical salary is about $6,050 before tax, or $34.91 an hour. In percentage terms Seattle sits 30% to 42% above the national scale at every level, which in dollars means about $11,600 more at the bottom quarter, $21,600 at the median and $38,900 at the top-10% line. The bottom of the scale is high partly because of the minimum wage. Seattle's is $21.30 an hour in 2026, which works out to $44,304 for a full-time year, already above the metro's bottom-10% line. The statewide minimum is $17.13, and several other cities in the metro set their own.

The BLS counts jobs by where they are, not where people live, and covers employees only, so the self-employed are left out. It also converts hourly pay to a full-time year of 2,080 hours, so a part-time job shows up at its full-time rate. If you count only people who worked full time all year and live in the metro, the Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2024 puts the median at $86,289, and 42.7% of them earned $100,000 or more. That is a different group measured a different way. The "over $100,000" figure you may see quoted for Seattle is the same survey limited to residents of the city itself, where the full-time median is $102,481.

What no state income tax is worth on a Seattle salary

To see what the missing income tax adds up to, we took the same gross salary and worked out monthly take-home pay for a single person in three places: Seattle, San Diego and Minneapolis. Everything else is held equal: 2026 federal income tax and standard deduction, Social Security and Medicare, a 5% pre-tax 401(k), and each state's own payroll levies.

Washington is not entirely deduction-free. Two state programs come out of every paycheck: Paid Family and Medical Leave, where employees pay up to 0.81% of wages in 2026, and the WA Cares long-term care fund at 0.58%, with no cap. On the typical $72,610 the two together cost about $84 a month. California takes 1.3% for State Disability Insurance on top of income tax, and Minnesota 0.44% for its paid leave program.

Source: PayScope calculation with 2026 IRS brackets, 2025 California Franchise Tax Board schedules, 2026 Minnesota brackets, FICA, a 5% 401(k), and state payroll levies (Washington PFML 0.81% and WA Cares 0.58%; California SDI 1.3%; Minnesota Paid Leave 0.44%). Health insurance premiums not included.

On the typical Seattle salary, no income tax is worth about $2,200 a year against California and $2,500 against Minnesota, or roughly $190 to $210 a month. Compare that with the gap between typical workers in the two metros: the Seattle median takes home about $4,670 a month and the San Diego median about $3,720, a difference of roughly $950, and only about $190 of it comes from tax. The rest is higher pay.

The benefit grows quickly with income because California and Minnesota tax higher earnings at higher rates. At the top-10% line it reaches about $10,400 a year against California, and at $200,000 about $13,400.

So when you compare a Seattle offer with one in a state that has an income tax, the tax difference matters most for senior and high-paid roles. For a typical salary, the bigger question is rent. One caveat for very high earners: Washington has adopted a 9.9% tax on income above $1 million, due to start in 2028 and already facing court challenges. It does not touch any salary in this article.

Is Seattle expensive to live in on a typical salary?

For rent we use HUD's Fair Market Rents for 2026 for King and Snohomish counties: $2,146 a month for a one-bedroom and $2,501 for a two-bedroom, including utilities. Both are about 6% lower than HUD's 2025 figures. HUD sets these at the 40th percentile of what recent movers pay, so they describe an ordinary apartment, not a new tower in South Lake Union.

Source: PayScope calculation with 2026 IRS brackets, FICA, Washington PFML and WA Cares premiums, and a 5% 401(k); rent from HUD FY2026 Fair Market Rents, Seattle-Bellevue area. Health insurance not included.

On the typical $72,610, a one-bedroom takes 46% of take-home and leaves about $2,530 a month for everything else. That is tight but workable, and much easier than in San Diego, where a one-bedroom takes 66% of a typical salary that is $14,000 lower. Rent falls to 30% of take-home at about $118,000, just above the top-quarter line.

Sharing changes the numbers quickly. Half of a two-bedroom costs about $1,250, which is 27% of take-home on the typical salary and reaches 30% at around $64,000. A couple who both earn the metro median and file jointly take home about $9,345 a month, and a two-bedroom takes 27% of that. In Pierce County HUD's one-bedroom is $1,605, so the same typical salary spends 34% on rent in Tacoma.

A practical answer for Seattle: to rent a one-bedroom alone and keep it near 30% of take-home, you need a top-quarter salary of about $118,000. With a roommate or a partner, the typical $72,610 already gets there.

Jobs that pay a good salary in Seattle

If "good" means the top quarter of all jobs, these are the large occupations whose typical pay in the Seattle metro is above the $112,650 line. The figures are BLS medians across all experience levels, so a senior person in these jobs usually earns more.

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro, occupations with at least 5,000 jobs (selection).

Software developers are the single largest occupation in the metro, with 92,770 jobs, about four times their share of the national workforce. That is a big part of why Seattle's mean salary sits almost $20,000 above its median. Several jobs that need no tech background also come close to the top-quarter line here: elementary school teachers have a median of $102,920 and electricians $101,780.

Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma and the rest of the metro

The BLS does not split its figures below the metro, but the Census Bureau's survey of residents does. Among people who worked full time all year in 2024, here is the median by the city they live in.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table S2001, in 2024 dollars. Smaller cities such as Bothell, Shoreline and Lakewood are not included here.

The Eastside cities sit far above everyone else. Full-time workers who live in Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond have medians around $132,000 to $137,000, and Sammamish is higher still, though its margin of error is wide. The city of Seattle sits at $102,481 with a tight margin, and 53% of its full-time residents earned $100,000 or more. South of the city the picture changes: Kent, Federal Way and Auburn are around $61,000 to $66,000, closer to Tacoma and Everett. These figures describe who lives in each city, not what employers there pay, since many people commute to downtown Seattle, South Lake Union, Bellevue and Redmond.

Average salary in Washington state

Most of Washington's jobs are in this one metro: 2,086,210 of the state's 3,550,970 in the BLS survey. For the whole state the median job pays $62,990, the top quarter starts at $101,710 and the top 10% at $153,630. Among people who worked full time all year, the Census Bureau puts the state median at $75,710 for 2024, and 35.2% of them earned $100,000 or more. Both figures are lower than the Seattle metro's because they include Spokane, the Tri-Cities, Yakima and the rural counties.

Why your number may differ from the average

The metro median tells you where the middle of the whole job market sits. It says very little about what you should be paid.

Your role and level set the range, and in Seattle they put every senior profile we tested at $128,000 or more at the median. Your specific skills then decide whether you sit in the bottom or top quarter of your own role, which for the senior software engineer is the difference between $170,000 and $215,000. That gap is about twenty times what the missing state income tax is worth on a typical salary.

The useful comparison is with people doing your job, at your level, in this metro. Upload your resume to PayScope and you get that comparison: a Seattle range for your profile and where your current pay sits inside it.

FAQ

What is considered a good salary in Seattle?

On the job scale, $112,650 puts you in the top quarter of jobs in the Seattle metro and $167,440 in the top 10% (BLS, May 2025). For a single person renting a one-bedroom alone, rent falls to 30% of take-home at about $118,000. With a roommate, the typical salary of $72,610 already keeps your half of a two-bedroom near 27%.

Is $100,000 a good salary in Seattle?

Yes. $100,000 is well above the metro median of $72,610 and a little below the top-quarter line of $112,650. A single filer takes home about $6,160 a month after federal tax, FICA, Washington's two payroll premiums and a 5% 401(k). A typical one-bedroom at $2,146 takes about 35% of that, so it is a comfortable salary for living alone and an easy one with a roommate.

Is $200,000 a good salary in Seattle?

Yes, by any measure on the job scale: it is above the top-10% line of $167,440. A single filer takes home about $11,560 a month, and a typical one-bedroom takes 19% of that. Because Washington has no income tax on wages, the same $200,000 takes home about $1,100 a month more in Seattle than in San Diego.

Does Washington have a state income tax?

Not on wages in 2026. Workers pay two state payroll premiums instead: Paid Family and Medical Leave (up to 0.81% of wages for employees) and WA Cares (0.58%). Washington has adopted a 9.9% tax on income above $1 million, scheduled to start in 2028.

What is the average salary in Seattle per month and per hour?

The typical (median) job in the Seattle metro pays $72,610 a year, which is about $6,050 a month or $34.91 an hour before tax. After federal tax, FICA, state payroll premiums and a 5% 401(k), a single filer takes home about $4,670 a month. The mean is higher, $91,790 a year or $44.13 an hour, because high earners pull it up.

Why do different websites give different average salaries for Seattle?

They measure different things. For jobs in the metro in May 2025, the BLS median is $72,610 and the mean is $91,790 ($44.13 an hour). For full-time, year-round workers who live in the metro, the Census median for 2024 is $86,289, and for the city of Seattle alone it is $102,481. Salary sites use their own data and land around $76,000 to $98,000.