Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,286
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$9,834
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,218
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
$53,120
Kept after tax
$43,286
Worth in national money
$48,218
State rank
40
of 46 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. West Virginia pays this job a middle wage of $53,120, 40 of 46 states and about 19.84% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 215 among 473 occupations West Virginia publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $53,120 you keep $43,286 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $48,218 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $54,830, since top earners drag the number up.
- West Virginia's $53,120 median for probation officers and correctional treatment specialists places it 40 of 46 states, about 19.84% 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.
- Position 215 of 473 in West Virginia places probation officers and correctional treatment specialists in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $43,286 after the full tax stack, from $53,120. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $48,218 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $54,830 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,640 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $73,190 |
| This salary | $53,120 |
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 | $43,286 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $44,862 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,052 |
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 | $51,159 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,481 |
| 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 probation officers and correctional treatment specialists in West Virginia earn under $53,120 and half over. The published range runs $37,640 at the tenth percentile to $73,190 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In West Virginia the take-home figure of $43,286, from $53,120, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 215 of 473 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $48,218, the adjusted value of that $53,120 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 215 of 473 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for probation officers and correctional treatment specialists in West Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,640 to $73,190; 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.
- Take-home for West Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $43,286 from $53,120. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 215 of 473 locally.
- This $48,218 adjusted figure, worked from $53,120, 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 215 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 215 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 $54,830 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $37,640 and the top tenth $73,190, so most people doing this work in West Virginia sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in West Virginia sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $48,218 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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, $43,286 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 46 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $54,830. 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 ($37,640 to $73,190) 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 $48,218 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 $43,286 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.