Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping in West Virginia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$26,492
after federal, FICA and West Virginia tax
Tax takes
$4,718
15.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,510
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
$31,210
Kept after tax
$26,492
Worth in national money
$29,510
State rank
49
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. West Virginia pays this job a middle wage of $31,210, 49 of 49 states and about 32.71% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within West Virginia this is lower-paid work. Of 473 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 428. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $31,210 you keep $26,492 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $29,510 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $34,140, since top earners drag the number up.
- West Virginia's $31,210 median for weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping places it 49 of 49 states, about 32.71% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation West Virginia reports, weighers, measurers, checkers, and samplers, recordkeeping ranks 428 of 473, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in West Virginia is $26,492 after the full tax stack, from $31,210. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $29,510 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $34,140 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $27,190 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,210 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,140 |
| This salary | $31,210 |
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 | $26,492 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,257 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,460 |
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 | $30,257 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,766 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $31,210 as a midpoint for West Virginia, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $27,190 and the ninetieth is $46,140 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $26,492 take-home in West Virginia comes from $31,210. 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 428 of 473.
- Two cautions on $29,510, the adjusted value of that $31,210 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 428 of 473 locally.
- The West Virginia median of $31,210 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $27,190 to $46,140. 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 $26,492, from $31,210, assumes a single West 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 428 of 473 locally, and the state ranks 49 of 49 for it.
- This $29,510 adjusted figure, worked from $31,210, 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 428 of 473 in the state. The occupation ranks 428 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 $34,140, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $27,190 and the top tenth $46,140, so most people doing this work in West Virginia sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. West Virginia is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $29,510 in national terms.
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 $26,492 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 49 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 West Virginia is $34,140. 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 ($27,190 to $46,140) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to West Virginia rather than a national figure.
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 $29,510 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 $26,492 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 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.