Interior Designers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,610
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$12,950
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,242
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
$62,560
Kept after tax
$49,610
Worth in national money
$49,242
State rank
29
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays interior designers around $62,560 at the midpoint, 29 of 49 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Interior designers ranks 221 among 489 occupations Virginia publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $62,560, tax leaves $49,610, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $49,242 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $70,840, since top earners drag the number up.
- For interior designers the Virginia median is $62,560, ranking 29 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.
- Position 221 of 489 in Virginia places interior designers 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 interior designers — median $62,560 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $49,610 retained, $49,242 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $70,840 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Interior Designers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,230 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,560 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,030 |
| This salary | $62,560 |
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 | $49,610 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,447 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,730 |
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 | $59,030 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,721 |
| 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 interior designers in Virginia earn under $62,560 and half over. The published range runs $43,230 at the tenth percentile to $100,030 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $49,610, from $62,560, 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 221 of 489 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $49,242, the adjusted value of that $62,560 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 221 of 489 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for interior designers in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $43,230 to $100,030; 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 $49,610 from $62,560. 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 221 of 489 locally.
- This $49,242 adjusted figure, worked from $62,560, 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 221 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 221 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 $70,840, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $43,230 at the bottom tenth to $100,030 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Virginia run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $49,242 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Virginia then takes its own share, leaving $49,610.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $70,840. 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 ($43,230) and the ninetieth ($100,030) 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 $49,242 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 $49,610 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.