Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,935
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$9,655
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,638
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
$49,590
Kept after tax
$39,935
Worth in national money
$39,638
State rank
27
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Virginia sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $49,590, ranking 27 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 318 among 489 occupations Virginia publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $49,590, tax leaves $39,935, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $39,638 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $53,310, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia occupies the middle band for inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers: a median of $49,590, ranking 27 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Position 318 of 489 in Virginia places inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers — median $49,590 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,935 retained, $39,638 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $53,310 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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: Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,210 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,390 |
| This salary | $49,590 |
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 | $39,935 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,026 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,609 |
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 | $46,988 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,365 |
| 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 inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers in Virginia earn under $49,590 and half over. The published range runs $36,210 at the tenth percentile to $76,390 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $39,935, from $49,590, 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 318 of 489 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $39,638, the adjusted value of that $49,590 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 318 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,210 to $76,390; 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 $39,935 from $49,590. 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 318 of 489 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $39,638 — the adjusted value of that $49,590 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 318 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 $53,310 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $36,210 and the top tenth $76,390 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $39,638 of national purchasing power.
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, $39,935 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 $53,310. 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 ($36,210) and the ninetieth ($76,390) 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 $39,638 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 $39,935 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.