Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,953
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$6,037
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,480
West Virginia costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in West 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
$36,990
Kept after tax
$30,953
Worth in national money
$34,480
State rank
47
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. West Virginia pays this job a middle wage of $36,990, 47 of 51 states and about 8.08% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within West Virginia this is lower-paid work. Of 473 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 371. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $36,990 you keep $30,953 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,480 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $38,490, since top earners drag the number up.
- West Virginia's $36,990 median for laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand places it 47 of 51 states, about 8.08% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation West Virginia reports, laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand ranks 371 of 473, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $30,953 after the full tax stack, from $36,990. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,480 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $38,490 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,270 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,990 |
| Top tenth earn over | $50,240 |
| This salary | $36,990 |
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 West Virginia | $30,953 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,901 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,651 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $35,810 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,997 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
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 laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand in West Virginia earn under $36,990 and half over. The published range runs $27,270 at the tenth percentile to $50,240 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $30,953 take-home in West Virginia comes from $36,990. 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 371 of 473.
- One number stands for prices across all of West Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $34,480, the adjusted value of that $36,990 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 371 of 473 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand in West Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $27,270 to $50,240; 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 $30,953, from $36,990, assumes a single West 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 371 of 473 locally, and the state ranks 47 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for West Virginia, so $34,480 — the adjusted value of that $36,990 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 371 of 473 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $38,490, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $27,270 at the bottom tenth to $50,240 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. West Virginia is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $34,480 in national terms.
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; West Virginia then takes its own share, leaving $30,953.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 West Virginia is $38,490. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($27,270 to $50,240) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to West Virginia rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
West Virginia's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $34,480 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $30,953 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and West 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.