Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,815
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$9,615
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,519
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
$49,430
Kept after tax
$39,815
Worth in national money
$39,519
State rank
37
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Virginia pays this job a middle wage of $49,430, 37 of 49 states and about 10.27% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 321 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Virginia costs about what the country costs, so from $49,430, take-home of $39,815 is worth roughly $39,519 in national money. The average comes to $55,560, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Virginia's $49,430 median for environmental science and protection technicians, including health places it 37 of 49 states, about 10.27% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Environmental science and protection technicians, including health ranks 321 of 489 occupations in Virginia by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Price parity in Virginia is near the national base, so for environmental science and protection technicians, including health, whose median is $49,430, the adjusted figure of $39,519 differs little from $39,815 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $55,560 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,840 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,430 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,300 |
| This salary | $49,430 |
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 | $39,815 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,897 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,596 |
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 | $46,839 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,349 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $49,430 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,840 and the ninetieth is $77,300 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $39,815 take-home in Virginia comes from $49,430. 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 321 of 489.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $39,519 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 321.
- The Virginia median of $49,430 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,840 to $77,300. 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 $39,815, from $49,430, 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 321 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 37 of 49 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $39,519, worked from $49,430, 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 321 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 $55,560, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,840, the highest tenth $77,300, 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 $39,519 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, $39,815 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 $55,560. 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 ($37,840) and the ninetieth ($77,300) 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 $39,519 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 $39,815 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.