Bartenders in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,272
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$4,358
14.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,151
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
$29,630
Kept after tax
$25,272
Worth in national money
$28,151
State rank
28
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. West Virginia is 28 of 51 states for bartenders, with a middle wage of $29,630. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Within West Virginia this is lower-paid work. Of 473 occupations the state publishes figures for, bartenders ranks 442. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $29,630 you keep $25,272 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $28,151 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $37,910, since top earners drag the number up.
- West Virginia ranks 28 of 51 for bartenders at $29,630. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Against every occupation West Virginia reports, bartenders ranks 442 of 473, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $25,272 after the full tax stack, from $29,630. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $28,151 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $37,910 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Bartenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $19,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $29,630 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,280 |
| This salary | $29,630 |
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 | $25,272 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,988 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,408 |
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 | $28,739 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,703 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $29,630 as a midpoint for West Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $19,900 and the ninetieth is $64,280 — 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 $25,272, worked from $29,630. 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 442 of 473.
- Two cautions on $28,151, the adjusted value of that $29,630 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 442 of 473 locally.
- The West Virginia median of $29,630 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $19,900 to $64,280. 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 $25,272, on $29,630 for work ranking 442 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 442 of 473 in the state.
- This $28,151 adjusted figure, worked from $29,630, 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 442 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 442 of 473 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $37,910, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $19,900, the highest tenth $64,280, 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 $28,151 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 $25,272 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 $37,910. 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 ($19,900) and the ninetieth ($64,280) 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 $28,151 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 $25,272 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.