First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers in Virginia

A protective helmet, radio and safety vest at an emergency response station.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$48,290

after federal, FICA and Virginia tax

Tax takes

$12,500

20.6% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$47,931

Virginia costs more than average

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

$60,790

Kept after tax

$48,290

Worth in national money

$47,931

State rank

12

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for this job is strong here. Virginia's middle earner gets $60,790, putting the state 12 of 51 — about 8.67% ahead of the national figure.
  • Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 238 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $60,790, tax leaves $48,290, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $47,931 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $67,420, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For first-line supervisors of security workers, Virginia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $60,790, ranking 12 of 51 and running about 8.67% 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.
  • First-line supervisors of security workers ranks 238 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.
  • Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for first-line supervisors of security workers — median $60,790 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $48,290 retained, $47,931 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $67,420 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

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Pay band: First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$42,440
Half earn under$60,790
Top tenth earn over$99,820
This salary$60,790

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

Compare with
+$2,735take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Virginia$48,290
Take-home in Texas$51,025
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$4,577

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

Moving to
$0now · $60,790$55,254
$55,254in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$57,386
You could take a cut of−$5,536
Prices in Texas97 vs 101

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of first-line supervisors of security workers in Virginia earn under $60,790 and half over. The published range runs $42,440 at the tenth percentile to $99,820 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • That $48,290 take-home in Virginia comes from $60,790. 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 238 of 489.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $47,931 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 238.
  • Figures are distribution medians for first-line supervisors of security workers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $42,440 to $99,820; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
  • Retained pay of $48,290, from $60,790, 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 238 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 12 of 51 for it.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $47,931, worked from $60,790, 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 238 of 489 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $67,420 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

Why is the pay range for this job so wide?

One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $42,440, the highest tenth $99,820, 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 $47,931 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.

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 Virginia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $48,290 of this wage survives to your account.

Can I compare this job across every state?

All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.

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 $67,420. 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 ($42,440) and the ninetieth ($99,820) 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 $47,931 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 $48,290 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.