Public Relations Specialists in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,516
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$18,864
23.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$61,059
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
$80,380
Kept after tax
$61,516
Worth in national money
$61,059
State rank
7
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for public relations specialists is strong here. Virginia's middle earner gets $80,380, putting the state 7 of 51 — about 7.53% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 130 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $80,380, tax leaves $61,516, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $61,059 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $92,860, since top earners drag the number up.
- For public relations specialists, Virginia sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $80,380, ranking 7 of 51 and running about 7.53% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Public relations specialists ranks 130 of 489 occupations in 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.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for public relations specialists — median $80,380 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $61,516 retained, $61,059 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $92,860 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Public Relations Specialists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,840 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $80,380 |
| Top tenth earn over | $162,050 |
| This salary | $80,380 |
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 | $61,516 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $65,377 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,219 |
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 | $74,891 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$8,591 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $80,380 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $46,840 and the ninetieth is $162,050 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $61,516, from $80,380, 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 130 of 489 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $61,059, the adjusted value of that $80,380 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of 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 130 of 489 locally.
- The Virginia median of $80,380 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $46,840 to $162,050. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $61,516 from $80,380. 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 130 of 489 locally.
- This $61,059 adjusted figure, worked from $80,380, 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 130 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 130 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $92,860, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $46,840, the highest tenth $162,050, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Virginia run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $61,059 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Virginia's own levy, $61,516 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Virginia is $92,860. 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 ($46,840) and the ninetieth ($162,050) 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.
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 $61,059 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 $61,516 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.