Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,379
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$6,402
17.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$30,153
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
$36,780
Kept after tax
$30,379
Worth in national money
$30,153
State rank
39
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Virginia pays this job a middle wage of $36,780, 39 of 50 states and about 6.36% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Virginia this is lower-paid work. Of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 445. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $36,780 the take-home is $30,379, which is worth about $30,153 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $38,840, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Virginia's $36,780 median for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service places it 39 of 50 states, about 6.36% 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 Virginia reports, mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service ranks 445 of 489, 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.
- Virginia's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service on its $36,780 median: $30,379 retained after tax becomes $30,153 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $38,840 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,140 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $36,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $53,250 |
| This salary | $36,780 |
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 | $30,379 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,733 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,503 |
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 | $35,095 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,027 |
| 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 $36,780. The published range is $27,140 up to $53,250, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Virginia's $30,379, worked from $36,780. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 445 of 489.
- Two cautions on $30,153, the adjusted value of that $36,780 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 445 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service in Virginia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $27,140 to $53,250. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Virginia take-home of $30,379, on $36,780 for work ranking 445 of 489 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 445 of 489 in the state.
- This $30,153 adjusted figure, worked from $36,780, 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 445 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 445 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $38,840 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $27,140 at the tenth percentile, $53,250 at the ninetieth.
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 $30,153 rather than its face figure.
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, $30,379 remains.
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 50 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 $38,840. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($27,140 to $53,250) 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 $30,153 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 $30,379 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.