Surveyors in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,681
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$11,839
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,341
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
$61,520
Kept after tax
$49,681
Worth in national money
$55,341
State rank
45
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- West Virginia is among the lower-paying states for surveyors. The middle earner takes $61,520, ranking 45 of 50 states — about 18.45% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in West Virginia, this sits in the middle: 159 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 $61,520 you keep $49,681, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $55,341 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $67,780, because the best-paid pull it up.
- West Virginia ranks 45 of 50 for surveyors, with a median of $61,520 — about 18.45% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Surveyors ranks 159 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 surveyors on $61,520 is $49,681. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $55,341 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 $67,780 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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: Surveyors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $37,920 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,520 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,280 |
| This salary | $61,520 |
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 | $49,681 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,611 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,230 |
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 | $59,118 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,697 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $61,520 as a midpoint for West Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $37,920 and the ninetieth is $100,280 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind West Virginia's $49,681, worked from $61,520. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 159 of 473.
- One number stands for prices across all of West Virginia, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $55,341, the adjusted value of that $61,520 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 159 of 473 in the state.
- The West Virginia median of $61,520 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $37,920 to $100,280. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The West Virginia take-home of $49,681, on $61,520 for work ranking 159 of 473 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 159 of 473 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for West Virginia, so $55,341 — the adjusted value of that $61,520 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 159 of 473 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $67,780, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $37,920, the highest tenth $100,280, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $55,341 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 $49,681 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 $67,780. 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 ($37,920) and the ninetieth ($100,280) 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 $55,341 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 $49,681 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.
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.