Emergency Management Directors in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$74,100
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$25,760
25.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$73,549
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
$99,860
Kept after tax
$74,100
Worth in national money
$73,549
State rank
14
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Virginia is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $99,860, which ranks 14 of 47 states with published figures. That is about 7% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 489 occupations Virginia reports, this job comes in at 82 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $99,860, tax leaves $74,100, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $73,549 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $112,810, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia ranks 14 of 47 states publishing a median for emergency management directors, at $99,860 — about 7% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Emergency management directors ranks 82 of 489 occupations by median in Virginia, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for emergency management directors — median $99,860 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $74,100 retained, $73,549 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $112,810 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Emergency Management Directors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $67,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $99,860 |
| Top tenth earn over | $179,140 |
| This salary | $99,860 |
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 | $74,100 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $79,082 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,831 |
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 | $92,779 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,817 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $99,860 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $67,190 and the ninetieth is $179,140 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $74,100 take-home in Virginia comes from $99,860. 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 82 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $73,549, the adjusted value of that $99,860 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 82 of 489 in the state.
- The Virginia median of $99,860 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $67,190 to $179,140. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $74,100, from $99,860, 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 82 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 47 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $73,549 — the adjusted value of that $99,860 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 82 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 $112,810, 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $67,190 at the bottom tenth to $179,140 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $73,549 of national purchasing power.
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 $74,100.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 47 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $112,810. 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 ($67,190) and the ninetieth ($179,140) 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 $73,549 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 $74,100 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.