Machinists in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,663
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$12,627
20.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,301
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
$61,290
Kept after tax
$48,663
Worth in national money
$48,301
State rank
14
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Virginia pays machinists a middle wage of $61,290, ranking 14 of 51 states and sitting about 4.32% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Machinists ranks 232 among 489 occupations Virginia publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $61,290, tax leaves $48,663, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $48,301 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $62,770, since top earners drag the number up.
- Virginia's median for machinists is $61,290, about 4.32% 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.
- Position 232 of 489 in Virginia places machinists 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 machinists — median $61,290 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $48,663 retained, $48,301 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $62,770 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Machinists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,120 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,290 |
| Top tenth earn over | $86,380 |
| This salary | $61,290 |
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 | $48,663 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,427 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,620 |
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 | $57,851 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,588 |
| 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 machinists in Virginia earn under $61,290 and half over. The published range runs $45,120 at the tenth percentile to $86,380 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $48,663 take-home in Virginia comes from $61,290. 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 232 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $48,301, the adjusted value of that $61,290 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 232 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for machinists in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $45,120 to $86,380; 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 $48,663, from $61,290, 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 232 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 14 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $48,301 — the adjusted value of that $61,290 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 232 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $45,120 and the top tenth $86,380, so most people doing this work in Virginia sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $48,301 of national purchasing power.
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 $48,663 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($45,120 to $86,380) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Virginia rather than a national figure.
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 $48,301 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 $48,663 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.