Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$51,426
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$12,394
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$57,285
West Virginia costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in West 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
$63,820
Kept after tax
$51,426
Worth in national money
$57,285
State rank
36
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. West Virginia pays this job a middle wage of $63,820, 36 of 51 states and about 16.67% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in West Virginia, this sits in the middle: 143 of 473 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $63,820 you keep $51,426 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $57,285 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $66,970, since top earners drag the number up.
- West Virginia's $63,820 median for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants places it 36 of 51 states, about 16.67% 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.
- Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ranks 143 of 473 occupations in West 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.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $51,426 after the full tax stack, from $63,820. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $57,285 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $66,970 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,670 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,820 |
| Top tenth earn over | $95,090 |
| This salary | $63,820 |
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 West Virginia | $51,426 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,459 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,271 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $61,289 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,756 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in West Virginia earn less than $63,820. The published range is $40,670 up to $95,090, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In West Virginia the take-home figure of $51,426, from $63,820, 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 143 of 473 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $57,285 uses one figure for the whole of West Virginia. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 473 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 143.
- Reported values are medians; for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants in West Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $40,670 to $95,090. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for West Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $51,426 from $63,820. 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 143 of 473 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $57,285, worked from $63,820, 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 West Virginia address, on work sitting at 143 of 473 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 $66,970, 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 $40,670, the highest tenth $95,090, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in West Virginia sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $57,285 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and West Virginia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $51,426 of this wage survives to your account.
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 West Virginia is $66,970. 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 ($40,670) and the ninetieth ($95,090) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
West Virginia's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $57,285 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $51,426 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and West 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.