Food Servers, Nonrestaurant in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,118
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$5,972
17.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,901
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
$35,090
Kept after tax
$29,118
Worth in national money
$28,901
State rank
21
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays food servers, nonrestaurant around $35,090 at the midpoint, 21 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 489 occupations Virginia publishes, food servers, nonrestaurant lands at 463. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $35,090, tax leaves $29,118, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $28,901 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $35,590, since top earners drag the number up.
- For food servers, nonrestaurant the Virginia median is $35,090, ranking 21 of 51 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 463 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 servers, nonrestaurant — median $35,090 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $29,118 retained, $28,901 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $35,590 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Food Servers, Nonrestaurant
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,040 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,090 |
| Top tenth earn over | $42,930 |
| This salary | $35,090 |
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 | $29,118 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,375 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,357 |
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 | $33,526 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,850 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Virginia earn less than $35,090. The published range is $29,040 up to $42,930, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $29,118 take-home in Virginia comes from $35,090. 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 463 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $28,901, the adjusted value of that $35,090 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 463 of 489 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for food servers, nonrestaurant in Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $29,040 to $42,930. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $29,118, from $35,090, 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 463 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $28,901 — the adjusted value of that $35,090 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 463 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $29,040 at the tenth percentile, $42,930 at the ninetieth.
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 $28,901 rather than its face figure.
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 $29,118 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($29,040 to $42,930) 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 $28,901 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 $29,118 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.