Tool and Die Makers in Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,722
after federal, FICA and Virginia tax
Tax takes
$13,328
20.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,345
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
$64,050
Kept after tax
$50,722
Worth in national money
$50,345
State rank
23
of 45 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Virginia pays tool and die makers around $64,050 at the midpoint, 23 of 45 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Virginia, this sits in the middle: 202 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 $64,050, tax leaves $50,722, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $50,345 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $64,970, since top earners drag the number up.
- For tool and die makers the Virginia median is $64,050, ranking 23 of 45 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.
- Tool and die makers ranks 202 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 tool and die makers — median $64,050 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $50,722 retained, $50,345 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $64,970 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Tool and Die Makers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $47,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,050 |
| Top tenth earn over | $86,880 |
| This salary | $64,050 |
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 | $50,722 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,644 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,859 |
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 | $60,413 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,876 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $64,050 as a midpoint for Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $47,400 and the ninetieth is $86,880 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $50,722 take-home in Virginia comes from $64,050. 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 202 of 489.
- Two cautions on $50,345, the adjusted value of that $64,050 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of 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 202 of 489 locally.
- The Virginia median of $64,050 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $47,400 to $86,880. 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 $50,722, from $64,050, 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 202 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 23 of 45 for it.
- This $50,345 adjusted figure, worked from $64,050, 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 202 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 202 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $47,400 at the bottom tenth to $86,880 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Virginia costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $50,345 rather than its face figure.
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 $50,722 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 45 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($47,400 to $86,880) 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 $50,345 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 $50,722 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 45 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.