Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,151
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$9,729
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,853
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
$49,880
Kept after tax
$40,151
Worth in national money
$39,853
State rank
15
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Virginia is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $49,880, which ranks 15 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 3.38% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 316 among 489 occupations Virginia publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $49,880 the take-home is $40,151, which is worth about $39,853 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $54,720, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Virginia ranks 15 of 50 states publishing a median for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders, at $49,880 — about 3.38% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Position 316 of 489 in Virginia places coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders 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.
- Virginia's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders on its $49,880 median: $40,151 retained after tax becomes $39,853 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $54,720 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,160 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $71,360 |
| This salary | $49,880 |
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 | $40,151 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,259 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,634 |
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 | $47,257 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,396 |
| 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 coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Virginia earn under $49,880 and half over. The published range runs $36,160 at the tenth percentile to $71,360 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $40,151 take-home in Virginia comes from $49,880. 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 316 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $39,853, the adjusted value of that $49,880 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 316 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,160 to $71,360; 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 $40,151, from $49,880, 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 316 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 15 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $39,853 — the adjusted value of that $49,880 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 316 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $54,720, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $36,160 at the tenth percentile, $71,360 at the ninetieth.
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 $39,853 rather than its face figure.
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 $40,151 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 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 $54,720. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,160 to $71,360) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Virginia rather than a national figure.
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 $39,853 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 $40,151 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.