Project Management Specialists Average Salary in Washington
$127,580 average · $127,580 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 13-1082What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Project Management Specialists in Washington, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
How much do Project Management Specialists make in Washington?
The average project management specialists salary in Washington is $127,580 per year. That works out to about $61.34 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 36,240 project management specialists jobs in Washington.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $127,580. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $127,580; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $127,580 — a 0% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Business and Financial Operations Careers Are Structured
Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how project management specialists pay is distributed in Washington specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
Industry choice is the dominant pay lever: the same analyst role pays substantially more in finance, tech, or energy than in education, nonprofits, or local government. Professional credentials (CPA, PHR, PMP, CFA) reliably move workers from the median toward the 75th percentile because they are contractually required for certain work, not merely decorative.
Entry typically requires a bachelor's degree, but the field is unusually open to career-changers because the core skills — analysis, communication, process discipline — transfer across industries. Early-career workers should weight employers by what they teach: two years in a rigorous environment moves you up this distribution faster than five in a lax one.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Project Management Specialists Do?
Project Management Specialists positions belong to the business and financial operations field. Business and financial operations specialists — analysts, accountants, HR specialists, buyers, project managers — form the professional middle layer of nearly every industry. The work is office-based and increasingly remote-friendly, which means the geographic wage gaps shown in this data are gradually being arbitraged by remote hiring in ways the survey is only beginning to reflect.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 13-1082
Project Management Specialists pay in Washington
In Washington, project management specialists report a median of $127,580 (about $61.34/hour) across roughly 36,240 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $127,580 at the 10th percentile to $127,580 at the 90th.
Compared with the national distribution, local industry mix and cost of living are the main reasons Washington wages for this occupation sit where they do — toggle Regional Price Parity on this page to see purchasing-power-adjusted pay.
What your paycheck is really worth in Washington
Prices in Washington run 7% above the national average (RPP 107.0). So a nominal salary of $127,580 has the buying power of about $119,219 in national terms.
Washington vs. United States for Project Management Specialists
The median project management specialists salary in Washington is $127,580, which is +15.2% above the national median of $110,740 (mean pay is +15.5% above the U.S. mean of $110,450). Among 51 states and D.C. with OEWS data, Washington ranks #2 by median wage for this occupation (top tier). Washington accounts for about 0.6% of U.S. project management specialists employment in the latest OEWS release.
See every state ranked for this occupation on the best-paying states page, or compare purchasing power on real wages.
Income reality check
The median salary for Project Management Specialists in Washington of $127,580 falls in the Upper-middle class band of this framework - roughly ~13% of the U.S. population and ~4% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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Occupation Report Card
Top Industries for Project Management Specialists
| $119,266 | $110,935 | $57 | 860,030 | |
| $104,397 | $99,031 | $50 | 524,090 |
Related Occupations
SOC: 11-1021 • 83% match | $134,649 | $134,530 | $65 | 18,506,210 |
SOC: 15-1211 • 87% match | $113,928 | $116,540 | $55 | 2,818,890 |
SOC: 13-1111 • 87% match | $112,617 | $113,790 | $54 | 4,824,600 |
SOC: 13-2011 • 89% match | $94,419 | $95,250 | $45 | 7,668,610 |
| Find Occupation 13 2011 Jobs | ||||
SOC: 13-1161 • 83% match | $89,203 | $89,790 | $43 | 4,666,320 |
SOC: 25-2021 • 84% match | $72,861 | $72,710 | $35 | 10,929,790 |
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