Graphic Designers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$56,303
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$16,007
22.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,884
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
$72,310
Kept after tax
$56,303
Worth in national money
$55,884
State rank
10
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for graphic designers is strong here. Virginia's middle earner gets $72,310, putting the state 10 of 51 — about 14.85% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 171 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $72,310 the take-home is $56,303, which is worth about $55,884 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $76,670, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For graphic designers, Virginia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $72,310, ranking 10 of 51 and running about 14.85% 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.
- Graphic designers ranks 171 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.
- Virginia's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for graphic designers on its $72,310 median: $56,303 retained after tax becomes $55,884 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $76,670 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Graphic Designers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,020 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $72,310 |
| Top tenth earn over | $121,680 |
| This salary | $72,310 |
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 | $56,303 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $59,700 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,551 |
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 | $67,481 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,437 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 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 graphic designers in Virginia earn under $72,310 and half over. The published range runs $39,020 at the tenth percentile to $121,680 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $56,303 take-home in Virginia comes from $72,310. 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 171 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $55,884, the adjusted value of that $72,310 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 171 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for graphic designers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,020 to $121,680; 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 $56,303, from $72,310, 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 171 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $55,884 — the adjusted value of that $72,310 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 171 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 $76,670 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 $39,020, the highest tenth $121,680, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $55,884 rather than its face figure.
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, $56,303 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 $76,670. 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 ($39,020) and the ninetieth ($121,680) 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 $55,884 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 $56,303 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.