Counter and Rental Clerks in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,913
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$8,627
18.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$36,639
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
$45,540
Kept after tax
$36,913
Worth in national money
$36,639
State rank
11
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Virginia pays counter and rental clerks a middle wage of $45,540, ranking 11 of 51 states and sitting about 10.27% above the national middle.
- Against 489 occupations Virginia publishes, counter and rental clerks lands at 367. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $45,540, tax leaves $36,913, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $36,639 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $49,920, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia's median for counter and rental clerks is $45,540, about 10.27% above the national figure and 11 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Virginia, this work ranks 367 of 489 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for counter and rental clerks — median $45,540 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $36,913 retained, $36,639 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $49,920 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Counter and Rental Clerks
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,340 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,540 |
| Top tenth earn over | $74,890 |
| This salary | $45,540 |
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 | $36,913 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,771 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,259 |
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 | $43,228 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,942 |
| 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 counter and rental clerks in Virginia earn under $45,540 and half over. The published range runs $31,340 at the tenth percentile to $74,890 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $36,913 take-home in Virginia comes from $45,540. 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 367 of 489.
- Two cautions on $36,639, the adjusted value of that $45,540 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of 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 367 of 489 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for counter and rental clerks in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,340 to $74,890; 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 $36,913, from $45,540, 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 367 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 51 for it.
- This $36,639 adjusted figure, worked from $45,540, 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 367 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 367 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 $49,920, 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 $31,340 and the top tenth $74,890 — 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 $36,639 rather than its face figure.
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 $36,913.
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 Virginia is $49,920. 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 ($31,340) and the ninetieth ($74,890) 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 $36,639 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 $36,913 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.