Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,562
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$6,808
16.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,386
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
$40,370
Kept after tax
$33,562
Worth in national money
$37,386
State rank
47
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in West Virginia. The middle earner gets $40,370. That is 47 of 51 states, and about 15.08% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in West Virginia, this sits in the middle: 327 of 473 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where West Virginia does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $40,370 you keep $33,562, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $37,386 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $41,990, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive, West Virginia sits in the lower band at $40,370, ranking 47 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 15.08%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive ranks 327 of 473 occupations in West 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.
- After federal, FICA and West Virginia income tax, retained pay for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive on $40,370 is $33,562. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $37,386 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $41,990 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,820 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,370 |
| Top tenth earn over | $57,970 |
| This salary | $40,370 |
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 | $33,562 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,617 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,763 |
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 | $39,057 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,132 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $40,370 as a midpoint for West Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $28,820 and the ninetieth is $57,970 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $33,562 take-home in West Virginia comes from $40,370. 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 327 of 473.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $37,386 uses one figure for the whole of West Virginia. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 473 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 327.
- The West Virginia median of $40,370 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $28,820 to $57,970. 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 $33,562, from $40,370, 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 327 of 473 locally, and the state ranks 47 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $37,386, worked from $40,370, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular West Virginia address, on work sitting at 327 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 $41,990 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $28,820, the highest tenth $57,970, 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 $37,386 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 $33,562 of this wage survives to your account.
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 West Virginia is $41,990. 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 ($28,820) and the ninetieth ($57,970) 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 $37,386 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 $33,562 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.
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.