XPost: seattle.politics, alt.economics, or.politics
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Oh, the great pain of working for one of those top 1%,
like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or Steve Balmer.
Demonstrates the lie of those who think they keep all
the wealth for themselves.

from https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/median-earnings-for-seattle-full-time-workers-passes-100000/

Median earnings for Seattle full-time workers pass $100,000
March 20, 2025 at 6:00 am Updated March 20, 2025 at 6:00 am
The Amazon Spheres in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. High-paying tech jobs helped boost the median earnings for a full-time, year-round worker living in Seattle into six figures for the first time.
(Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times, 2024)

The Amazon Spheres in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.
High-paying tech jobs helped boost the median earnings for a full-time, year-round worker living in Seattle into six figures for the first time.
(Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times, 2024)
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By Gene Balk / FYI Guy
Seattle Times columnist
In most places in the United States, if you earn a salary of $100,000,
you’re doing quite well. But in Seattle, you’re just in the middle of
the pack.

In 2023, the median earnings for a full-time, year-round worker living
in Seattle were just shy of $101,000, according to new data from the
U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. It’s the first
time median earnings in Seattle have hit six figures. In 2022, the
estimate was about $99,700.

The median is the midway point. In other words, half the full-time
workers made more, and half made less. There were roughly 345,000
Seattle residents who worked full time and year-round in 2023.

It’s worth taking a moment to define what the Census Bureau calls “earnings.” I suspect many people see the term and think of it interchangeably with income, but that isn’t the case.

Earnings are limited to what you make at your job, such as salaries,
wages, tips, commissions and cash bonuses, before taxes and other
deductions. Income is more expansive, including things like interest, dividends, income from rental properties, royalties, public assistance
and disability and retirement incomes (Social Security, pensions, etc.).

Unlike income, the Census Bureau calculates median earnings for
individuals rather than households. When calculating income, the bureau includes all contributions made by household members 16 years and older.
The median household income in Seattle was about $121,000 in 2023.


Seattle No. 2 for median earnings
Among the nation’s 50 most-populous cities, Seattle had the
second-highest median earnings for a full-time, year-round worker, at
almost $101,000.

U.S. Census Bureau (Fiona Martin / The Seattle Times)
Seattle ranked second for median full-time earnings among the 50
most-populous U.S. cities. San Francisco was No. 1, at around $110,600. Washington, D.C., ranked third, and just slightly behind Seattle at
$100,700.

In all the other large cities, median earnings were well below $100,000.
El Paso, Texas, was at the bottom of the list, at around $43,900, which
was just slightly lower than Detroit and Memphis, Tenn.

Nationally, the median earnings for a full-time worker was $60,100 in
2023, meaning the median in Seattle was about 68% higher.

Seattle also has one of the highest costs of living in the U.S., so it
helps to have a big paycheck. But of course, there are still plenty of
folks scraping by here on a lot less than $100,000.

Around 53,800 Seattle residents who work full time, or nearly 16% of
workers, earned less than $50,000 in 2023. An additional 115,400, or
33%, made between $50,000 and $99,999.

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There was a fairly substantial gender gap in median earnings among
Seattle residents. For men who worked full time, the median was about
$111,600 and for women it was $90,300. About 57% of Seattle men earned
$100,000 or more, compared with 44% of women, among full-time,
year-round workers.

Regarding the gender gap in earnings, it’s worth noting that roughly 3
out of 4 tech jobs were held by men in Seattle, according to census
data. And tech jobs tend to pay very well.

The median earnings for a Seattle resident holding a full-time job in mathematical-and-computer occupations was $164,900 in 2023, the highest
median of any job category. In Seattle, most workers in this job
category were software developers.

Legal occupations had the second-highest median, at around $138,300, and management occupations ranked third, at $125,800.

The census data includes all U.S. cities with a population of at least
65,000. While Seattle ranked second among the nation’s 50 largest
cities, two smaller cities in Washington had even higher median earnings.

Bellevue had the second-highest median earnings for full-time workers
among all U.S. cities with at least 65,000 residents, at around
$132,500. Sunnyvale, Calif., which is in Silicon Valley, was No. 1, at $151,100.

Bellevue wasn’t the only Washington city in the Top 10. Kirkland ranked sixth-highest in the nation at $116,300.

Seattle ranked 14th among all U.S. cities with a population of at least
65,000.

Gene Balk / FYI Guy: gbalk@seattletimes.com.
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