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City of Tacoma salary estimate

$53,028yearly

$25.49 hourly rate

Entry-level salary
$32,000 yearly salary
Updated December 15, 2025

City of Tacoma Salaries Overview

The City of Tacoma provides a variety of career paths, with salaries that can differ widely based on the specific role. The average salary across all positions stands at $53,028, but top earners such as data scientists and city attorneys receive significantly higher compensation, averaging $87,450 and $86,393 respectively.

Conversely, entry-level positions like customer service representatives earn around $32,337, showing the disparity based on job responsibilities. Pay also varies by department; for instance, the engineering department offers an average salary of $67,819, while the IT department follows closely with $63,292.

When comparing salaries with competitors such as the City of Gary and City of Chicago, Tacoma’s pay structure remains competitive. Employees at the City of Gary earn an average of $63,587, indicating Tacoma's commitment to fair compensation. Understanding these salary differences is crucial for job seekers evaluating their options within the city.

Highest paying jobs at City of Tacoma

The highest paying jobs at City of Tacoma are data scientist, city attorney, sap/abap developer, and engineering associate. Data scientist jobs at City of Tacoma earn an average yearly salary of $87,450, City of Tacoma city attorney jobs average $86,393, and City of Tacoma sap/abap developer jobs average $81,360.

The lowest paying City of Tacoma roles include customer service representative and volunteer. City of Tacoma customer service representative average salary is $32,337 per year. So while the average City of Tacoma salary is $53,028 there is a big variation in pay depending on the role.

Highest paying jobs at City of Tacoma

RankJob titleAverage City of Tacoma salaryHourly rate
1Data Scientist$87,450$42.04
2City Attorney$86,393$41.54
3Sap/Abap Developer$81,360$39.12
4Engineering Associate$80,947$38.92
5Operation Supervisor$79,889$38.41
6City Treasurer$79,069$38.01
7Power Distribution Engineer$78,942$37.95
8SAP Fico Consultant$77,247$37.14
9Systems Engineer$76,539$36.80
10Service Manager$74,601$35.87
11Electrician$73,699$35.43
12Information Technology Supervisor, Information Technology$73,491$35.33
13Program Manager$70,759$34.02
14SAP Abap Consultant$70,145$33.72
15Information Technology Senior Analyst$70,114$33.71
16Journeyman Lineman$68,644$33.00
17Field Tax Auditor$67,857$32.62
18Permit Specialist$60,591$29.13
19Police Sergeant$60,316$29.00
20Police Officer$59,954$28.82

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City of Tacoma salaries by department

Salaries at City of Tacoma vary depending on the department you work in. City of Tacoma salaries in the engineering department are the highest with an average salary of $67,819. Employees in the it department at City of Tacoma receive relatively high salaries as well, with an average salary of $63,292 per year. Departments that don't pay as well at City of Tacoma include the retail and the administrative organizational functions, with employees earning average salaries of $36,886 and $37,103, respectively.

Average City of Tacoma salary by department

RankDepartmentAverage City of Tacoma salaryHourly rate
1Engineering$67,819$32.61
2IT$63,292$30.43
3Research & Development$61,387$29.51
4Marketing$60,275$28.98
5Finance$59,384$28.55
6Non Profit/Government$54,716$26.31
7Legal$54,479$26.19
8Construction$54,081$26.00
9Supply Chain$53,197$25.58
10Accounting$51,186$24.61
11Customer Service$48,384$23.26
12Human Resources$47,343$22.76
13Plant/Manufacturing$46,769$22.49
14Education$45,616$21.93
15Facilities$41,993$20.19
16Administrative$37,104$17.84
17Retail$36,887$17.73

How much does City of Tacoma pay by department?

Best paying City of Tacoma engineering salaries

RankPositionAverage City of Tacoma salaryHourly rate
1Principal Developer$94,006$45.20
2Data Scientist$87,450$42.04
3Sap/Abap Developer$81,360$39.12
4Abap-Developer$81,187$39.03
5Engineering Associate$80,947$38.92
6Power Distribution Engineer$78,942$37.95
7SAP Fico Consultant$77,247$37.14
8Systems Engineer$76,539$36.80
9Energy Manager$76,002$36.54
10SAP Business Analyst$74,046$35.60
11Waste Management Specialist$70,799$34.04
12Senior Project Manager$69,775$33.55
13Data Analyst$61,851$29.74
14GIS Specialist$58,953$28.34
15Gis Internship$58,708$28.23
16Engineering Technician$51,077$24.56
17Communications Officer$40,324$19.39
18Refuse Collector$36,866$17.72
19Solid Waste Collector$35,916$17.27

Best paying City of Tacoma facilities salaries

RankPositionAverage City of Tacoma salaryHourly rate
1Journeyman Lineman$68,644$33.00
2System Technician$55,638$26.75
3Safety Officer$53,539$25.74
4Facilities Coordinator$46,649$22.43
5Maintenance Technician Supervisor$41,886$20.14
6Heavy Equipment Mechanic$41,179$19.80
7Locomotive Mechanic$40,750$19.59
8Utility Worker$38,656$18.58
9Custodian$33,010$15.87
10Janitor$29,118$14.00
11Grounds Maintenance Worker$28,978$13.93
12Woodworking Shop Hand$28,199$13.56
13Irrigation Installation Specialist$26,213$12.60

Best paying City of Tacoma non profit/government salaries

RankPositionAverage City of Tacoma salaryHourly rate
1Delivery Manager$73,482$35.33
2Program Manager$70,759$34.02
3Latent Print Examiner$64,047$30.79
4Programming Specialist$62,825$30.20
5Police Sergeant$60,316$29.00
6Police Officer$59,954$28.82
7Recreational Programs Director$47,449$22.81
8Council Member$46,891$22.54
9Program Assistant$46,018$22.12
10Law Enforcement Officer$43,374$20.85
11Social Work Internship$39,598$19.04
12Court Appointed Special Advocate$36,685$17.64
13Field Investigator$32,719$15.73

City of Tacoma competitors’ average salaries

Average salaries at City of Tacoma competitors, like City of Gary, City of Chicago, and City Of Hartford, vary. City of Gary employees earn the highest salaries, with an average yearly salary of $63,587. The average salary at City of Chicago is $63,559 per year, and the average salary at City Of Hartford is $62,688 per year.

Highest paying City of Tacoma competitors

RankCompany nameZippia scoreAverage salary
1City of Gary4.1$63,587
2City of Chicago3.9$63,559
3City Of Hartford4.4$62,688
4King County4.5$58,262
5City of Seattle4.5$58,099
6Mayor Ethan Berkowitz4.6$54,775
7City of Ann Arbor3.9$51,552
8Atlanta Regional Commission4.2$50,829
9City of Newark3.9$49,994
10City and County of Denver Government4.6$49,854
11City of Middletown4.0$47,795
12San Mateo County Grant Corporation3.8$45,458
13Porterville, California4.1$44,653
14U.S. Department of the Interior4.8$43,882
15City Of Toledo3.9$42,774
16Ohio Department of Higher Education3.9$41,191
17City of Olympia4.0$40,936
18Chicago Housing Authority4.4$40,698
19City of Sacramento4.3$35,908
20Alaska Housing Finance4.2$34,827

Recently added City of Tacoma salaries

JobLocationDate addedSalary
Water Treatment Plant OperatorTacoma, WA05/14/2025$104,851
Cushman Hydro Seasonal Grounds WorkerTacoma, WA02/05/2025$42,804
Safety InternTacoma, WA01/28/2025$34,895
Customer Accounts SupervisorTacoma, WA01/28/2025$91,661
Water Professional EngineerTacoma, WA01/23/2025$118,560

What employees say about salary at City of Tacoma

Employee reviews
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1.0
A zippia user wrote a review on May 2021
Pros of working at City of Tacoma

The people are great to work with. For the most part, we are united as one giant team.

Cons of working at City of Tacoma

There is one big political agenda. Decisions are driven by City Council and a lot of times those decisions are outside of standard policies and are citizen requests (think squeaky wheel). For example, equity is a huge topic right now and making sure we pave streets evenly throughout the City and not just focus on one neighborhood is critical. We have KPI's and report tto the public that we have steps in place to ensure the upgrades and improvements are spread out evenly. One day a member of the city council will contact a director and say "so and so's road needs paved. Make it happen" and they do it! Because they have to! But there are time where "so and so" is a relative or friend of said councilmember OR it's an annoying citizen who complains daily and they are tired of hearing about it. That goes against EVERYTHING the City says it stands for. Also, there are a lot of employees, particularly office staff, who are union represented and management fears them and will not hold them accountable. It is as if a Union employee can be the worst employee ever and get away with it, while the non-represented are working harder and not getting recognized or getting laid off due to budget cuts because management is to scared to deal with the Union. A lot of really messed up things happen at the city. One really bad thing that I will never forget was that because the new City Manager was African American, he forced all employees to essentially give black employees and potential hires special attention and preferential treatment over everyone else, regardless of if they were a minority or not. That sounds absurd, but its true. I have a handbook that was drafted by the City Manager that essentially said hire anyone black, but only hire anyone else after you've interviewed xx amount of black people regardless of their experience.

City of Tacoma benefits

Salary and benefits are very nice. You have to pay for parking at most locations.

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Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of City of Tacoma, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about City of Tacoma. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at City of Tacoma. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by City of Tacoma. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of City of Tacoma and its employees or that of Zippia.

City of Tacoma may also be known as or be related to City Of Tacoma, City of Tacoma and City of Tacoma (Washington).