Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,180
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$10,760
19.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$42,859
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
$53,940
Kept after tax
$43,180
Worth in national money
$42,859
State rank
17
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays this job around $53,940 at the midpoint, 17 of 47 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 283 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 $53,940, tax leaves $43,180, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $42,859 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $58,170, since top earners drag the number up.
- For structural metal fabricators and fitters the Virginia median is $53,940, ranking 17 of 47 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.
- Structural metal fabricators and fitters ranks 283 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 structural metal fabricators and fitters — median $53,940 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $43,180 retained, $42,859 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $58,170 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,870 |
| This salary | $53,940 |
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 | $43,180 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,521 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,985 |
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 | $51,027 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,820 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 structural metal fabricators and fitters in Virginia earn under $53,940 and half over. The published range runs $43,510 at the tenth percentile to $79,870 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $43,180 take-home in Virginia comes from $53,940. 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 283 of 489.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $42,859 uses one figure for the whole of Virginia. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 489 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 283.
- Figures are distribution medians for structural metal fabricators and fitters in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $43,510 to $79,870; 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.
- Retained pay of $43,180, from $53,940, assumes a single 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 283 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 17 of 47 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $42,859, worked from $53,940, 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 Virginia address, on work sitting at 283 of 489 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 $58,170 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $43,510 at the bottom tenth to $79,870 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
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 $42,859 — 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, $43,180 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 47 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 Virginia is $58,170. 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 ($43,510 to $79,870) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Virginia rather than a national figure.
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 $42,859 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 $43,180 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.
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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.