Librarians and Media Collections Specialists in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$59,610
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$17,820
23.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$59,167
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
$77,430
Kept after tax
$59,610
Worth in national money
$59,167
State rank
14
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Virginia pays this job a middle wage of $77,430, ranking 14 of 51 states and sitting about 13.42% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 145 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $77,430 the take-home is $59,610, which is worth about $59,167 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $77,240, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- Virginia's median for librarians and media collections specialists is $77,430, about 13.42% above the national figure and 14 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Librarians and media collections specialists ranks 145 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.
- Virginia's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for librarians and media collections specialists on its $77,430 median: $59,610 retained after tax becomes $59,167 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $77,240 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Librarians and Media Collections Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $48,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $77,430 |
| Top tenth earn over | $107,600 |
| This salary | $77,430 |
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 | $59,610 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $63,302 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,975 |
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 | $72,183 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,253 |
| 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 librarians and media collections specialists in Virginia earn under $77,430 and half over. The published range runs $48,510 at the tenth percentile to $107,600 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $59,610 take-home in Virginia comes from $77,430. 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 145 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $59,167, the adjusted value of that $77,430 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 145 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for librarians and media collections specialists in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $48,510 to $107,600; 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 $59,610, from $77,430, assumes a single 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 145 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $59,167 — the adjusted value of that $77,430 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 145 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $48,510, the highest tenth $107,600, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $59,167 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, $59,610 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.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($48,510) and the ninetieth ($107,600) 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 $59,167 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 $59,610 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.
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.