Animal Trainers in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,023
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$6,057
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,557
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
$37,080
Kept after tax
$31,023
Worth in national money
$34,557
State rank
30
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. West Virginia pays animal trainers around $37,080 at the midpoint, 30 of 47 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 473 occupations West Virginia publishes, animal trainers lands at 370. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where West Virginia does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $37,080 you keep $31,023, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $34,557 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $46,540, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For animal trainers the West Virginia median is $37,080, ranking 30 of 47 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within West Virginia, this work ranks 370 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.
- After federal, FICA and West Virginia income tax, retained pay for animal trainers on $37,080 is $31,023. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $34,557 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $46,540 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Animal Trainers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,080 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,750 |
| This salary | $37,080 |
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 | $31,023 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,974 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,654 |
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 | $35,896 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,000 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,080 as a midpoint for West Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,510 and the ninetieth is $76,750 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind West Virginia's $31,023, worked from $37,080. 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 370 of 473.
- One number stands for prices across all of West Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $34,557, the adjusted value of that $37,080 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 370 of 473 in the state.
- The West Virginia median of $37,080 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,510 to $76,750. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The West Virginia take-home of $31,023, on $37,080 for work ranking 370 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 370 of 473 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for West Virginia, so $34,557 — the adjusted value of that $37,080 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 370 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 $46,540 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 $29,510, the highest tenth $76,750, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $34,557 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 West Virginia's own levy, $31,023 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $46,540. 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 ($29,510) and the ninetieth ($76,750) 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.
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 $34,557 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 $31,023 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.
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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.