Driver/Sales Workers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,677
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$6,503
17.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,449
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
$37,180
Kept after tax
$30,677
Worth in national money
$30,449
State rank
27
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays driver/sales workers around $37,180 at the midpoint, 27 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 489 occupations Virginia publishes, driver/sales workers lands at 441. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $37,180, tax leaves $30,677, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $30,449 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $40,770, since top earners drag the number up.
- For driver/sales workers the Virginia median is $37,180, ranking 27 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.
- Within Virginia, this work ranks 441 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 driver/sales workers — median $37,180 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $30,677 retained, $30,449 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $40,770 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Driver/Sales Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $26,470 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,180 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,530 |
| This salary | $37,180 |
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 | $30,677 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,054 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,537 |
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 | $35,466 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,068 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $37,180 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $26,470 and the ninetieth is $58,530 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $30,677, from $37,180, 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 441 of 489 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $30,449 uses one figure for the whole of Virginia. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 489 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 441.
- The Virginia median of $37,180 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $26,470 to $58,530. 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 Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $30,677 from $37,180. 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 441 of 489 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $30,449, worked from $37,180, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Virginia address, on work sitting at 441 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 $40,770 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 $26,470, the highest tenth $58,530, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $30,449 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 $30,677.
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 $40,770. 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 ($26,470) and the ninetieth ($58,530) 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 $30,449 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 $30,677 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.