Animal Caretakers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,588
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$5,792
16.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,376
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
$34,380
Kept after tax
$28,588
Worth in national money
$28,376
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Virginia sits in the middle of the pack for animal caretakers. The median is $34,380, ranking 21 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Virginia, this one sits low: 469 of 489 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $34,380, tax leaves $28,588, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $28,376 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $36,070, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia occupies the middle band for animal caretakers: a median of $34,380, ranking 21 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Animal caretakers occupies position 469 of 489 in Virginia's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for animal caretakers — median $34,380 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $28,588 retained, $28,376 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $36,070 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Animal Caretakers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,050 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $34,380 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,180 |
| This salary | $34,380 |
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 | $28,588 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $29,804 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,295 |
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 | $32,866 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,776 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of animal caretakers in Virginia earn under $34,380 and half over. The published range runs $28,050 at the tenth percentile to $46,180 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $28,588 take-home in Virginia comes from $34,380. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 469 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $28,376, the adjusted value of that $34,380 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 469 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for animal caretakers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $28,050 to $46,180; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $28,588, from $34,380, assumes a single Virginia filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 469 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $28,376 — the adjusted value of that $34,380 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 469 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $36,070, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $28,050 and the top tenth $46,180, so most people doing this work in Virginia sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Virginia costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $28,376 rather than its face figure.
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 Virginia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $28,588 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 Virginia is $36,070. 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 ($28,050 to $46,180) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Virginia rather than a national figure.
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 $28,376 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 $28,588 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.
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.