Insurance Underwriters in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$62,479
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$19,391
23.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,014
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
$81,870
Kept after tax
$62,479
Worth in national money
$62,014
State rank
19
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays insurance underwriters around $81,870 at the midpoint, 19 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 123 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 $81,870, tax leaves $62,479, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $62,014 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $92,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- For insurance underwriters the Virginia median is $81,870, ranking 19 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.
- Insurance underwriters ranks 123 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 insurance underwriters — median $81,870 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $62,479 retained, $62,014 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $92,270 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Insurance Underwriters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $61,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $81,870 |
| Top tenth earn over | $130,120 |
| This salary | $81,870 |
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 | $62,479 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $66,426 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,342 |
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 | $76,260 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,761 |
| 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 $81,870. The published range is $61,940 up to $130,120, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $62,479, from $81,870, 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 123 of 489 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $62,014, the adjusted value of that $81,870 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 123 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for insurance underwriters in Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $61,940 to $130,120. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $62,479 from $81,870. 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 123 of 489 locally.
- This $62,014 adjusted figure, worked from $81,870, 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 123 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 123 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 $92,270, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $61,940, the highest tenth $130,120, 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 $62,014 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 $62,479 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $92,270. 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 ($61,940) and the ninetieth ($130,120) 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 $62,014 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 $62,479 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.