Highway Maintenance Workers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$40,837
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$9,963
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,534
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
$50,800
Kept after tax
$40,837
Worth in national money
$40,534
State rank
23
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays highway maintenance workers around $50,800 at the midpoint, 23 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 304 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 $50,800, tax leaves $40,837, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $40,534 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $51,790, since top earners drag the number up.
- For highway maintenance workers the Virginia median is $50,800, ranking 23 of 49 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.
- Highway maintenance workers ranks 304 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 highway maintenance workers — median $50,800 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $40,837 retained, $40,534 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $51,790 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Highway Maintenance Workers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $41,540 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $50,800 |
| Top tenth earn over | $62,850 |
| This salary | $50,800 |
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 | $40,837 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,998 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,714 |
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 | $48,111 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,492 |
| 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 highway maintenance workers in Virginia earn under $50,800 and half over. The published range runs $41,540 at the tenth percentile to $62,850 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $40,837, from $50,800, 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 304 of 489 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $40,534 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 304.
- Figures are distribution medians for highway maintenance workers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $41,540 to $62,850; 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.
- Take-home for Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $40,837 from $50,800. 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 304 of 489 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $40,534, worked from $50,800, 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 304 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $41,540 at the bottom tenth to $62,850 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $40,534 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 $40,837 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($41,540 to $62,850) 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 $40,534 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 $40,837 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.