Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$62,711
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$19,519
23.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,245
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
$82,230
Kept after tax
$62,711
Worth in national money
$62,245
State rank
17
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Virginia's middle earner gets $82,230, putting the state 17 of 51 — about 0.01% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Virginia. It ranks 120 out of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- No great distortion either way. Virginia costs about what the country costs, so from $82,230, take-home of $62,711 is worth roughly $62,245 in national money. The average comes to $90,500, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For environmental scientists and specialists, including health, Virginia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $82,230, ranking 17 of 51 and running about 0.01% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Virginia, environmental scientists and specialists, including health ranks 120 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.
- Price parity in Virginia is near the national base, so for environmental scientists and specialists, including health, whose median is $82,230, the adjusted figure of $62,245 differs little from $62,711 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $90,500 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $57,720 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $82,230 |
| Top tenth earn over | $135,580 |
| This salary | $82,230 |
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 | $62,711 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $66,679 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,372 |
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 | $76,590 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,802 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $82,230 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $57,720 and the ninetieth is $135,580 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $62,711 take-home in Virginia comes from $82,230. 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 120 of 489.
- Two cautions on $62,245, the adjusted value of that $82,230 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 120 of 489 locally.
- The Virginia median of $82,230 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $57,720 to $135,580. 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 $62,711, from $82,230, 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 120 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 17 of 51 for it.
- This $62,245 adjusted figure, worked from $82,230, 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 120 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 120 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 $90,500, 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 $57,720, the highest tenth $135,580, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $62,245 — 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, $62,711 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 $90,500. 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 ($57,720) and the ninetieth ($135,580) 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 $62,245 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 $62,711 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.