Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$62,692
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$19,508
23.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,226
Virginia costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Virginia — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$82,200
Kept after tax
$62,692
Worth in national money
$62,226
State rank
16
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Virginia's middle earner gets $82,200, putting the state 16 of 50 — about 2.92% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Virginia. It ranks 121 out of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $82,200, tax leaves $62,692, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $62,226 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $86,570, since top earners drag the number up.
- For aircraft mechanics and service technicians, Virginia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $82,200, ranking 16 of 50 and running about 2.92% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Virginia, aircraft mechanics and service technicians ranks 121 of 489 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for aircraft mechanics and service technicians — median $82,200 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $62,692 retained, $62,226 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $86,570 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $58,150 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $82,200 |
| Top tenth earn over | $125,170 |
| This salary | $82,200 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Virginia | $62,692 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $66,658 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,370 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $76,563 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,799 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Virginia earn less than $82,200. The published range is $58,150 up to $125,170, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $62,692, from $82,200, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 121 of 489 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $62,226, the adjusted value of that $82,200 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Virginia. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 121 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for aircraft mechanics and service technicians in Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $58,150 to $125,170. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $62,692 from $82,200. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 121 of 489 locally.
- This $62,226 adjusted figure, worked from $82,200, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 121 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 121 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $86,570 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $58,150, the highest tenth $125,170, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $62,226 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Virginia's own levy, $62,692 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Virginia is $86,570. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($58,150) and the ninetieth ($125,170) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Virginia's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $62,226 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $62,692 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Virginia income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.