Food Batchmakers in Virginia

Machined metal parts and a CNC machine in a clean manufacturing workshop.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$33,586

after federal, FICA and Virginia tax

Tax takes

$7,494

18.2% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$33,337

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

$41,080

Kept after tax

$33,586

Worth in national money

$33,337

State rank

20

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Middling, nationally. Virginia pays food batchmakers around $41,080 at the midpoint, 20 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
  • Against 489 occupations Virginia publishes, food batchmakers lands at 408. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
  • Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $41,080, tax leaves $33,586, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $33,337 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $43,910, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For food batchmakers the Virginia median is $41,080, ranking 20 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, this work ranks 408 of 489 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
  • Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for food batchmakers — median $41,080 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $33,586 retained, $33,337 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $43,910 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Food Batchmakers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$31,670
Half earn under$41,080
Top tenth earn over$56,160
This salary$41,080

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
+$1,601take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Virginia$33,586
Take-home in Texas$35,188
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$2,874

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 · $41,080$37,604
$37,604in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$39,087
You could take a cut of−$3,476
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 food batchmakers in Virginia earn under $41,080 and half over. The published range runs $31,670 at the tenth percentile to $56,160 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • That $33,586 take-home in Virginia comes from $41,080. 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 408 of 489.
  • Two cautions on $33,337, the adjusted value of that $41,080 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 408 of 489 locally.
  • Figures are distribution medians for food batchmakers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,670 to $56,160; 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 $33,586, from $41,080, 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 408 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 20 of 50 for it.
  • This $33,337 adjusted figure, worked from $41,080, 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 408 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 408 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 $43,910, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $31,670 and the top tenth $56,160, so most people doing this work in Virginia sit within a fairly tight band.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $33,337 of national purchasing power.

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 $33,586.

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 50 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 $43,910. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($31,670 to $56,160) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Virginia rather than a national figure.

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 $33,337 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 $33,586 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.