Massage Therapists in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,322
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$8,278
17.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,689
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
$46,600
Kept after tax
$38,322
Worth in national money
$42,689
State rank
44
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for massage therapists is on the low side in West Virginia. The middle earner gets $46,600. That is 44 of 50 states, and about 20.27% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in West Virginia, this sits in the middle: 277 of 473 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $46,600 you keep $38,322 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $42,689 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $48,410, since top earners drag the number up.
- For massage therapists, West Virginia sits in the lower band at $46,600, ranking 44 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 20.27%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Massage therapists ranks 277 of 473 occupations in West 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.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $38,322 after the full tax stack, from $46,600. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $42,689 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $48,410 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Massage Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $22,450 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,600 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,950 |
| This salary | $46,600 |
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 | $38,322 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,623 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,914 |
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 | $44,981 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,314 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,600 as a midpoint for West Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $22,450 and the ninetieth is $82,950 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $38,322 take-home in West Virginia comes from $46,600. 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 277 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 $42,689, the adjusted value of that $46,600 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 277 of 473 in the state.
- The West Virginia median of $46,600 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $22,450 to $82,950. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $38,322, from $46,600, 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 277 of 473 locally, and the state ranks 44 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for West Virginia, so $42,689 — the adjusted value of that $46,600 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 277 of 473 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 $48,410 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $22,450, the highest tenth $82,950, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $42,689.
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 West Virginia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,322 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 $48,410. 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 ($22,450) and the ninetieth ($82,950) 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.
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 $42,689 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 $38,322 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.
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.