Medical Transcriptionists in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,301
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$6,139
16.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,867
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
$37,440
Kept after tax
$31,301
Worth in national money
$34,867
State rank
36
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. West Virginia pays medical transcriptionists a middle wage of $37,440, 36 of 50 states and about 7.35% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within West Virginia this is lower-paid work. Of 473 occupations the state publishes figures for, medical transcriptionists ranks 365. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $37,440 you keep $31,301 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,867 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $40,590, since top earners drag the number up.
- West Virginia's $37,440 median for medical transcriptionists places it 36 of 50 states, about 7.35% 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 West Virginia reports, medical transcriptionists ranks 365 of 473, 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.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $31,301 after the full tax stack, from $37,440. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,867 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $40,590 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Medical Transcriptionists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $51,550 |
| This salary | $37,440 |
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 | $31,301 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,263 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,666 |
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 | $36,242 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,015 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
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 medical transcriptionists in West Virginia earn under $37,440 and half over. The published range runs $32,360 at the tenth percentile to $51,550 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $31,301 take-home in West Virginia comes from $37,440. 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 365 of 473.
- Two cautions on $34,867, the adjusted value of that $37,440 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of West 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 365 of 473 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for medical transcriptionists in West Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $32,360 to $51,550; 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 $31,301, from $37,440, 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 365 of 473 locally, and the state ranks 36 of 50 for it.
- This $34,867 adjusted figure, worked from $37,440, 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 365 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 365 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 $40,590 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 — $32,360 at the tenth percentile, $51,550 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. West Virginia is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $34,867 in national terms.
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 West Virginia's own levy, $31,301 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 West Virginia is $40,590. 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 ($32,360 to $51,550) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to West Virginia rather than a national figure.
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 $34,867 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 $31,301 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.