Buyers and Purchasing Agents in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$67,220
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$21,990
24.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$66,721
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
$89,210
Kept after tax
$67,220
Worth in national money
$66,721
State rank
4
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for buyers and purchasing agents is strong here. Virginia's middle earner gets $89,210, putting the state 4 of 51 — about 14.8% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Virginia. It ranks 106 out of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $89,210 the take-home is $67,220, which is worth about $66,721 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $95,090, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For buyers and purchasing agents, Virginia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $89,210, ranking 4 of 51 and running about 14.8% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Virginia, buyers and purchasing agents ranks 106 of 489 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Virginia's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for buyers and purchasing agents on its $89,210 median: $67,220 retained after tax becomes $66,721 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $95,090 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Buyers and Purchasing Agents
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $51,350 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $89,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $149,150 |
| This salary | $89,210 |
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 | $67,220 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $71,589 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,950 |
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 | $83,000 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,600 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $89,210 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $51,350 and the ninetieth is $149,150 — 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 Virginia's $67,220, worked from $89,210. 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 106 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $66,721, the adjusted value of that $89,210 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 106 of 489 in the state.
- The Virginia median of $89,210 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $51,350 to $149,150. 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 Virginia take-home of $67,220, on $89,210 for work ranking 106 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 106 of 489 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $66,721 — the adjusted value of that $89,210 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 106 of 489 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 $95,090 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 $51,350, the highest tenth $149,150, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $66,721 of national purchasing power.
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 Virginia's own levy, $67,220 remains.
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 $95,090. 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 ($51,350) and the ninetieth ($149,150) 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 $66,721 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 $67,220 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.