Security Guards in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$24,631
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$4,169
14.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$27,438
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
$28,800
Kept after tax
$24,631
Worth in national money
$27,438
State rank
51
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for security guards is on the low side in West Virginia. The middle earner gets $28,800. That is 51 of 51 states, and about 24.25% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 473 occupations West Virginia publishes, security guards lands at 448. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- West Virginia is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $28,800 the take-home is $24,631; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $27,438 would nationally. The average comes to $31,320, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For security guards, West Virginia sits in the lower band at $28,800, ranking 51 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 24.25%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within West Virginia, this work ranks 448 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.
- Post-tax income for security guards in West Virginia, on $28,800, is $24,631 — equivalent to $27,438 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $31,320 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Security Guards
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $20,800 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $28,800 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,370 |
| This salary | $28,800 |
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 | $24,631 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,321 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,381 |
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 | $27,956 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,670 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $28,800 as a midpoint for West Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $20,800 and the ninetieth is $47,370 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In West Virginia the take-home figure of $24,631, from $28,800, 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 448 of 473 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $27,438, the adjusted value of that $28,800 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 448 of 473 locally.
- The West Virginia median of $28,800 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $20,800 to $47,370. 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 West Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $24,631 from $28,800. 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 448 of 473 locally.
- This $27,438 adjusted figure, worked from $28,800, 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 448 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 448 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 $31,320 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $20,800 and the top tenth $47,370 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
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 $27,438 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 $24,631 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 $31,320. 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 ($20,800) and the ninetieth ($47,370) 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 $27,438 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 $24,631 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.