Child, Family, and School Social Workers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,693
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$12,637
20.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,331
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
$61,330
Kept after tax
$48,693
Worth in national money
$48,331
State rank
20
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays this job around $61,330 at the midpoint, 20 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 231 among 489 occupations Virginia publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $61,330, tax leaves $48,693, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $48,331 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $66,500, since top earners drag the number up.
- For child, family, and school social workers the Virginia median is $61,330, ranking 20 of 51 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.
- Position 231 of 489 in Virginia places child, family, and school social workers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for child, family, and school social workers — median $61,330 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $48,693 retained, $48,331 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $66,500 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Child, Family, and School Social Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,060 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $95,360 |
| This salary | $61,330 |
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 | $48,693 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,459 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,624 |
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 | $57,888 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,592 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of child, family, and school social workers in Virginia earn under $61,330 and half over. The published range runs $45,060 at the tenth percentile to $95,360 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $48,693 take-home in Virginia comes from $61,330. 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 231 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $48,331, the adjusted value of that $61,330 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 231 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for child, family, and school social workers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $45,060 to $95,360; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $48,693, from $61,330, 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 231 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 20 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $48,331 — the adjusted value of that $61,330 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 231 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 $66,500 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $45,060 and the top tenth $95,360 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Virginia costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $48,331 rather than its face figure.
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, $48,693 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $66,500. 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 ($45,060) and the ninetieth ($95,360) 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 $48,331 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 $48,693 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.