Construction and Building Inspectors in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,562
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$12,438
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,437
West Virginia costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in West 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
$64,000
Kept after tax
$51,562
Worth in national money
$57,437
State rank
39
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for construction and building inspectors is on the low side in West Virginia. The middle earner gets $64,000. That is 39 of 51 states, and about 14.31% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in West Virginia, this sits in the middle: 142 of 473 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- West Virginia is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $64,000 the take-home is $51,562; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $57,437 would nationally. The average comes to $68,180, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For construction and building inspectors, West Virginia sits in the lower band at $64,000, ranking 39 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 14.31%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Construction and building inspectors ranks 142 of 473 occupations in West 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.
- Post-tax income for construction and building inspectors in West Virginia, on $64,000, is $51,562 — equivalent to $57,437 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $68,180 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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: Construction and Building Inspectors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $34,090 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,930 |
| This salary | $64,000 |
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 West Virginia | $51,562 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,604 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,274 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $61,459 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,786 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $64,000 as a midpoint for West Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $34,090 and the ninetieth is $92,930 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In West Virginia the take-home figure of $51,562, from $64,000, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 142 of 473 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $57,437, the adjusted value of that $64,000 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of West Virginia. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 142 of 473 locally.
- The West Virginia median of $64,000 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $34,090 to $92,930. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for West Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $51,562 from $64,000. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 142 of 473 locally.
- This $57,437 adjusted figure, worked from $64,000, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 142 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 142 of 473 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 $68,180, 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $34,090 and the top tenth $92,930 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $57,437.
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 West Virginia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,562 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like 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 West Virginia is $68,180. 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 ($34,090) and the ninetieth ($92,930) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
West Virginia's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $57,437 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $51,562 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and West 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.