Environmental Engineers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$77,382
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$27,558
26.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$76,807
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
$104,940
Kept after tax
$77,382
Worth in national money
$76,807
State rank
22
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays environmental engineers around $104,940 at the midpoint, 22 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Virginia. It ranks 64 out of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $104,940, tax leaves $77,382, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $76,807 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $111,800, since top earners drag the number up.
- For environmental engineers the Virginia median is $104,940, ranking 22 of 50 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, environmental engineers ranks 64 of 489 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for environmental engineers — median $104,940 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $77,382 retained, $76,807 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $111,800 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Environmental Engineers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $65,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $104,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $157,990 |
| This salary | $104,940 |
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 | $77,382 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $82,655 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,252 |
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 | $97,444 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,398 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $104,940 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $65,520 and the ninetieth is $157,990 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $77,382, from $104,940, 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 64 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 $76,807 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 64.
- The Virginia median of $104,940 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $65,520 to $157,990. 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 $77,382 from $104,940. 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 64 of 489 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $76,807, worked from $104,940, 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 64 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $111,800, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $65,520, the highest tenth $157,990, 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 $76,807 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 $77,382.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 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 $111,800. 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 ($65,520) and the ninetieth ($157,990) 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 $76,807 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 $77,382 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.