Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,484
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$18,846
23.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,027
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
$80,330
Kept after tax
$61,484
Worth in national money
$61,027
State rank
37
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Virginia is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $80,330, ranking 37 of 48 states — about 13.86% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 131 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $80,330, tax leaves $61,484, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,027 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $93,880, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia ranks 37 of 48 for chemistry teachers, postsecondary, with a median of $80,330 — about 13.86% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Chemistry teachers, postsecondary ranks 131 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.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for chemistry teachers, postsecondary — median $80,330 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $61,484 retained, $61,027 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $93,880 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $52,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $139,460 |
| This salary | $80,330 |
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 | $61,484 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,342 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,215 |
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 | $74,845 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,585 |
| 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 $80,330. The published range is $52,540 up to $139,460, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $61,484 take-home in Virginia comes from $80,330. 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 131 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $61,027, the adjusted value of that $80,330 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 131 of 489 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for chemistry teachers, postsecondary in Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $52,540 to $139,460. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $61,484, from $80,330, 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 131 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 48 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $61,027 — the adjusted value of that $80,330 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 131 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 $93,880 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 $52,540, the highest tenth $139,460, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $61,027 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Virginia then takes its own share, leaving $61,484.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 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 $93,880. 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 ($52,540) and the ninetieth ($139,460) 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 $61,027 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 $61,484 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 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.