Editors in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,652
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$18,938
23.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,193
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
$80,590
Kept after tax
$61,652
Worth in national money
$61,193
State rank
7
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Virginia pays editors a middle wage of $80,590, ranking 7 of 50 states and sitting about 3.43% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Editors ranks 127 among 489 occupations Virginia publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $80,590, tax leaves $61,652, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,193 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $89,740, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia's median for editors is $80,590, about 3.43% above the national figure and 7 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Position 127 of 489 in Virginia places editors 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 editors — median $80,590 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $61,652 retained, $61,193 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $89,740 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Editors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $144,810 |
| This salary | $80,590 |
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 | $61,652 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,525 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,237 |
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 | $75,084 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,615 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Virginia earn less than $80,590. The published range is $45,760 up to $144,810, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $61,652 take-home in Virginia comes from $80,590. 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 127 of 489.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $61,193 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 127.
- Reported values are medians; for editors in Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $45,760 to $144,810. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $61,652, from $80,590, 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 127 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 7 of 50 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $61,193, worked from $80,590, 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 127 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 $89,740 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 $45,760 and the top tenth $144,810 — 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 $61,193 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, $61,652 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $89,740. 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 ($45,760) and the ninetieth ($144,810) 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 $61,193 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 $61,652 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.