Amusement and Recreation Attendants in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$21,804
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$3,426
13.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$24,288
West Virginia costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in West 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
$25,230
Kept after tax
$21,804
Worth in national money
$24,288
State rank
47
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in West Virginia. The middle earner gets $25,230. That is 47 of 51 states, and about 21.52% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 473 occupations West Virginia publishes, this job lands at 468. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $25,230 you keep $21,804 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $24,288 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $27,190, since top earners drag the number up.
- For amusement and recreation attendants, West Virginia sits in the lower band at $25,230, ranking 47 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 21.52%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within West Virginia, this work ranks 468 of 473 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $21,804 after the full tax stack, from $25,230. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $24,288 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $27,190 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Amusement and Recreation Attendants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $20,910 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $25,230 |
| Top tenth earn over | $37,830 |
| This salary | $25,230 |
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 West Virginia | $21,804 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $22,387 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,251 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $24,522 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,476 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in West Virginia earn less than $25,230. The published range is $20,910 up to $37,830, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind West Virginia's $21,804, worked from $25,230. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 468 of 473.
- Two cautions on $24,288, the adjusted value of that $25,230 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of West 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 468 of 473 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for amusement and recreation attendants in West Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $20,910 to $37,830. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The West Virginia take-home of $21,804, on $25,230 for work ranking 468 of 473 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 468 of 473 in the state.
- This $24,288 adjusted figure, worked from $25,230, 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 468 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 468 of 473 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 $27,190 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $20,910 and the top tenth $37,830, so most people doing this work in West Virginia sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in West Virginia sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $24,288 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and West Virginia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $21,804 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 West Virginia is $27,190. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($20,910 to $37,830) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to West Virginia rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
West Virginia's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $24,288 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $21,804 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and West 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.