CPA Salary in Washington 2026,
$96,550 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Washington median for accountants and auditors is $96,550 a year, $46.42 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $79,180 and $122,480 and a full range of $66,330 to $152,310. BLS publishes no CPA-only wage row, so read the licensed tier as sitting in the upper part of that distribution — and remember Washington takes no state income tax out of any of it.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue at $99,370, then Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater at $94,470, Kennewick-Richland at $93,280, Longview-Kelso at $93,130 and Mount Vernon-Anacortes at $92,920. Under seven thousand dollars separates the whole table, which makes Washington unusually flat geographically for this occupation.

Through the Washington State Board of Accountancy, which handles the whole credential — education evaluation, approval to sit the Uniform CPA Examination, and issuance of the licence once the experience requirement is verified by a licensed CPA. That single-board structure is simpler than the two-body arrangement several states use. Washington licences renew on a three-year cycle with continuing education including a Washington-specific ethics requirement.

It is a tax on gross receipts rather than on profit, applied at rates that vary by business activity classification, and it exists because Washington has no corporate or personal income tax. Accountants here spend real time on classification questions, on deductions and credits within the B&O regime, and on the state's destination-based sales tax sourcing. None of that transfers from practice in an income-tax state, which is why Washington state tax work is a genuine specialisation.

On the numbers, one of the best. A 15.4% premium over the national median plus no state income tax means the effective gap against most states is larger than the wage table shows, and the Seattle housing market is the main thing working the other way. The offsets to zero income tax are modest — a Paid Family & Medical Leave premium of about 0.81% of wages in 2026 and a WA Cares premium of 0.58%.

Sector mix and competition for talent. The Seattle corridor's technology, aerospace and international trade companies generate complex accounting work — revenue recognition under long-term and subscription models, transfer pricing, multistate and cross-border nexus — and they compete for the same accountants that the region's public firms want. A location quotient of 1.05 across about 34,740 accountants means the state is not oversupplied, so that demand shows up in price.

It is not one. SOC 13-2011 covers accountants and auditors without regard to licensure, so every figure here describes licensed and unlicensed practitioners together. Washington's single-board licensing structure makes the credential straightforward to obtain relative to some states, which means the licensed share of this population is reasonably high — but the $66,330 tenth percentile is still an unlicensed staff figure, not a CPA one.

As uncaptured hours, exactly as elsewhere, with a Washington twist. Public accounting here runs the same compressed January-to-April cycle, and OEWS records annual wages without reference to hours. What is different is that a Seattle senior at the Washington median of $96,550 pays no state income tax on the overtime or busy-season bonus, where a colleague in Oregon or California would — so the marginal hour is worth measurably more on this side of the state line.