Surveying and Mapping Technicians in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,284
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$11,476
20.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$44,947
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
$56,760
Kept after tax
$45,284
Worth in national money
$44,947
State rank
24
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays surveying and mapping technicians around $56,760 at the midpoint, 24 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Surveying and mapping technicians ranks 270 among 489 occupations Virginia publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $56,760, tax leaves $45,284, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $44,947 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $59,390, since top earners drag the number up.
- For surveying and mapping technicians the Virginia median is $56,760, ranking 24 of 50 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.
- Position 270 of 489 in Virginia places surveying and mapping technicians 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.
- Because Virginia sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for surveying and mapping technicians — median $56,760 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $45,284 retained, $44,947 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $59,390 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: Surveying and Mapping Technicians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,850 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,760 |
| Top tenth earn over | $85,010 |
| This salary | $56,760 |
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 | $45,284 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,787 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,229 |
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 | $53,645 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,114 |
| 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 surveying and mapping technicians in Virginia earn under $56,760 and half over. The published range runs $37,850 at the tenth percentile to $85,010 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Virginia the take-home figure of $45,284, from $56,760, 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 270 of 489 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $44,947 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 270.
- Figures are distribution medians for surveying and mapping technicians in Virginia, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,850 to $85,010; 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 Virginia is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $45,284 from $56,760. 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 270 of 489 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $44,947, worked from $56,760, 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 270 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 $59,390 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 $37,850 and the top tenth $85,010 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $44,947 of national purchasing power.
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 Virginia adds its own income tax on top — which is why $45,284 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 $59,390. 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 ($37,850) and the ninetieth ($85,010) 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 $44,947 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 $45,284 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 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.