Art Directors in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$74,934
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$26,216
25.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$74,376
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
$101,150
Kept after tax
$74,934
Worth in national money
$74,376
State rank
14
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Virginia pays art directors a middle wage of $101,150, ranking 14 of 46 states and sitting about 11.93% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 489 occupations Virginia reports, art directors comes in at 80 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $101,150, tax leaves $74,934, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $74,376 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $107,540, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia's median for art directors is $101,150, about 11.93% above the national figure and 14 of 46 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Art directors ranks 80 of 489 occupations by median in Virginia, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for art directors — median $101,150 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $74,934 retained, $74,376 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $107,540 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Art Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $64,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $101,150 |
| Top tenth earn over | $165,010 |
| This salary | $101,150 |
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 | $74,934 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,989 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,938 |
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 | $93,964 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,965 |
| 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 $101,150. The published range is $64,010 up to $165,010, 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 Virginia's $74,934, worked from $101,150. 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 80 of 489.
- Two cautions on $74,376, the adjusted value of that $101,150 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 80 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for art directors in Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $64,010 to $165,010. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Virginia take-home of $74,934, on $101,150 for work ranking 80 of 489 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 80 of 489 in the state.
- This $74,376 adjusted figure, worked from $101,150, 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 80 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 80 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 $107,540, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $64,010 at the bottom tenth to $165,010 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Virginia run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $74,376 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 $74,934 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 46 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $107,540. 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 ($64,010) and the ninetieth ($165,010) 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 $74,376 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 $74,934 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.