Medical Transcriptionists in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$29,148
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$5,982
17.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$28,931
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
$35,130
Kept after tax
$29,148
Worth in national money
$28,931
State rank
43
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for medical transcriptionists is on the low side in Virginia. The middle earner gets $35,130. That is 43 of 50 states, and about 13.07% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 489 occupations Virginia publishes, medical transcriptionists lands at 462. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $35,130, tax leaves $29,148, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $28,931 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $35,290, since top earners drag the number up.
- For medical transcriptionists, Virginia sits in the lower band at $35,130, ranking 43 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 13.07%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Virginia, this work ranks 462 of 489 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for medical transcriptionists — median $35,130 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $29,148 retained, $28,931 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $35,290 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Medical Transcriptionists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,110 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $35,130 |
| Top tenth earn over | $43,400 |
| This salary | $35,130 |
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 | $29,148 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $30,407 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,360 |
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 | $33,563 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,854 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $35,130 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $27,110 and the ninetieth is $43,400 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $29,148 take-home in Virginia comes from $35,130. 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 462 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $28,931, the adjusted value of that $35,130 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 462 of 489 in the state.
- The Virginia median of $35,130 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $27,110 to $43,400. 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 $29,148, from $35,130, 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 462 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 43 of 50 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Virginia, so $28,931 — the adjusted value of that $35,130 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 462 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $27,110 at the tenth percentile, $43,400 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 $28,931 rather than its face figure.
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; Virginia then takes its own share, leaving $29,148.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($27,110 to $43,400) 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 $28,931 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 $29,148 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.