Electrical Engineers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$86,484
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$32,546
27.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$85,841
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
$119,030
Kept after tax
$86,484
Worth in national money
$85,841
State rank
17
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays electrical engineers around $119,030 at the midpoint, 17 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Within Virginia this is well-paid work. Of 489 occupations with published figures in the state, electrical engineers ranks 51 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $119,030, tax leaves $86,484, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $85,841 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $123,830, since top earners drag the number up.
- For electrical engineers the Virginia median is $119,030, ranking 17 of 49 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.
- Ranked against every occupation Virginia publishes a median for, electrical engineers sits 51 of 489 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for electrical engineers — median $119,030 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $86,484 retained, $85,841 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $123,830 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Electrical Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $80,320 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $119,030 |
| Top tenth earn over | $173,400 |
| This salary | $119,030 |
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 | $86,484 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $92,568 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,418 |
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 | $110,382 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,009 |
| 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 electrical engineers in Virginia earn under $119,030 and half over. The published range runs $80,320 at the tenth percentile to $173,400 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Virginia's $86,484, worked from $119,030. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 51 of 489.
- Two cautions on $85,841, the adjusted value of that $119,030 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 51 of 489 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for electrical engineers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $80,320 to $173,400; 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.
- The Virginia take-home of $86,484, on $119,030 for work ranking 51 of 489 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 51 of 489 in the state.
- This $85,841 adjusted figure, worked from $119,030, 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 51 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 51 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 $123,830 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 $80,320 and the top tenth $173,400 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Virginia run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $85,841 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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, $86,484 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 49 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 $123,830. 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 ($80,320) and the ninetieth ($173,400) 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 $85,841 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 $86,484 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.