Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$28,120
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$5,200
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,324
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
$33,320
Kept after tax
$28,120
Worth in national money
$31,324
State rank
29
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. West Virginia pays this job around $33,320 at the midpoint, 29 of 46 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 473 occupations West Virginia publishes, this job lands at 416. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $33,320 you keep $28,120 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $31,324 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $37,530, since top earners drag the number up.
- For personal care and service workers, all other the West Virginia median is $33,320, ranking 29 of 46 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within West Virginia, this work ranks 416 of 473 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.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $28,120 after the full tax stack, from $33,320. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $31,324 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $37,530 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Personal Care and Service Workers, All Other
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $26,250 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $33,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $56,830 |
| This salary | $33,320 |
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 | $28,120 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $28,953 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,530 |
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 | $32,284 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,850 |
| 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 personal care and service workers, all other in West Virginia earn under $33,320 and half over. The published range runs $26,250 at the tenth percentile to $56,830 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind West Virginia's $28,120, worked from $33,320. 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 416 of 473.
- Two cautions on $31,324, the adjusted value of that $33,320 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 416 of 473 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for personal care and service workers, all other in West Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $26,250 to $56,830; 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.
- The West Virginia take-home of $28,120, on $33,320 for work ranking 416 of 473 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 416 of 473 in the state.
- This $31,324 adjusted figure, worked from $33,320, 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 416 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 416 of 473 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $37,530, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $26,250, the highest tenth $56,830, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $31,324 in national terms.
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 $28,120 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 46 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 $37,530. 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 ($26,250) and the ninetieth ($56,830) 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 $31,324 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 $28,120 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 46 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.