Carpet Installers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,435
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$9,485
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,142
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
$48,920
Kept after tax
$39,435
Worth in national money
$39,142
State rank
28
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays carpet installers around $48,920 at the midpoint, 28 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 327 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Virginia costs about what the country costs, so from $48,920, take-home of $39,435 is worth roughly $39,142 in national money. The average comes to $53,880, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For carpet installers the Virginia median is $48,920, ranking 28 of 45 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.
- Carpet installers ranks 327 of 489 occupations in Virginia by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Virginia is near the national base, so for carpet installers, whose median is $48,920, the adjusted figure of $39,142 differs little from $39,435 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $53,880 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Carpet Installers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,860 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,920 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,340 |
| This salary | $48,920 |
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 | $39,435 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,487 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,552 |
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 | $46,366 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,295 |
| 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 $48,920. The published range is $27,860 up to $79,340, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $39,435 take-home in Virginia comes from $48,920. 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 327 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $39,142, the adjusted value of that $48,920 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 327 of 489 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for carpet installers in Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $27,860 to $79,340. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $39,435, from $48,920, 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 327 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 28 of 45 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $39,142 — the adjusted value of that $48,920 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 327 of 489 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 $53,880, 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 $27,860, the highest tenth $79,340, 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 $39,142 of national purchasing power.
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 $39,435 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 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 Virginia is $53,880. 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 ($27,860) and the ninetieth ($79,340) 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 $39,142 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 $39,435 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.