Average salary in Virginia: $74,040 a year
The mean annual wage across every job BLS counts in Virginia, with the median, the pay spread, the job groups and the occupations behind it.
The average salary in Virginia is $74,040 a year ($35.60 an hour): that is the mean annual wage across 4,109,320 jobs in the BLS May 2025 survey. The median is $55,690 ($26.78 an hour), so half of those jobs paid less and half paid more. The mean sits above the median because a smaller number of very high wages pulls it up.
How Virginia compares with the United States
Virginia's mean salary is $4,270 (6.1%) above the U.S. figure of $69,770; its median is $4,710 (9.2%) above the U.S. figure of $50,980. Among the 50 states and DC, Virginia ranks 11th by mean salary and 17th by median salary (1 = highest; calculated from the BLS figures).
| Measure | Virginia | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Mean (average) salary | $74,040 | $69,770 |
| Median salary | $55,690 | $50,980 |
| Mean hourly wage | $35.60 | $33.54 |
| Median hourly wage | $26.78 | $24.51 |
| Jobs counted | 4,109,320 | 155,495,730 |
Prices matter as much as pay. BEA's regional price parity for Virginia in 2024 is 101.1, where the United States = 100: overall prices there were about 1.1% above the national price level. A salary goes further where the index is lower.
What jobs in Virginia pay, from low to high
One job in ten in Virginia paid less than $30,530 a year, and one in ten paid more than $139,010. A quarter paid less than $37,720; a quarter paid more than $89,420.
| Area | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | $30,530 | $37,720 | $55,690 | $89,420 | $139,010 |
| United States | $31,200 | $37,590 | $50,980 | $80,520 | $128,560 |
Pay by job group in Virginia
The largest group in Virginia is office and administrative support, with 426,040 jobs (10% of the total, calculated). The best-paid group by median is management ($141,720); the lowest-paid is food preparation and serving related ($35,110). Where BLS does not release a figure, the table says so.
| Job group | Jobs | Median salary | Mean (average) salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office and Administrative Support | 426,040 | $47,180 | $51,270 |
| Business and Financial Operations | 387,820 | $95,010 | $104,640 |
| Sales and Related | 355,320 | $37,420 | $54,710 |
| Food Preparation and Serving Related | 339,730 | $35,110 | $38,540 |
| Transportation and Material Moving | 325,070 | $44,270 | $50,530 |
| Management | 266,570 | $141,720 | $157,270 |
| Educational Instruction and Library | 252,970 | $61,100 | $67,550 |
| Computer and Mathematical | 248,190 | $128,700 | $130,240 |
| Healthcare Practitioners and Technical | 230,590 | $87,270 | $107,020 |
| Construction and Extraction | 176,990 | $56,460 | $59,630 |
| Production | 163,860 | $46,750 | $50,850 |
| Healthcare Support | 162,910 | $37,610 | $40,000 |
| Installation, Maintenance, and Repair | 155,070 | $59,820 | $63,090 |
| Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance | 128,150 | $36,010 | $38,790 |
| Protective Service | 114,200 | $51,120 | $58,510 |
| Personal Care and Service | 94,200 | $35,710 | $40,190 |
| Architecture and Engineering | 76,470 | $100,380 | $108,500 |
| Community and Social Service | 67,270 | $59,470 | $63,800 |
| Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media | 52,910 | $62,540 | $73,210 |
| Life, Physical, and Social Science | 43,270 | $85,670 | $103,000 |
| Legal | 36,930 | $110,300 | $137,770 |
| Farming, Fishing, and Forestry | 4,800 | $41,000 | $44,910 |
The occupations with the most jobs in Virginia
8 of the 12 largest occupations in Virginia with a published annual median paid a median below the all-jobs median of $55,690 (calculated from the BLS figures).
| Occupation | Jobs | Median salary |
|---|---|---|
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 104,460 | $30,110 |
| General and Operations Managers | 103,590 | $122,080 |
| Retail Salespersons | 100,290 | $34,240 |
| Software Developers | 88,280 | $136,460 |
| Cashiers | 83,890 | $30,580 |
| Registered Nurses | 77,490 | $93,600 |
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 70,070 | $30,300 |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 69,660 | $36,380 |
| Office Clerks, General | 66,550 | $46,410 |
| Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners | 65,970 | $35,170 |
| Customer Service Representatives | 59,850 | $42,730 |
| Management Analysts | 59,620 | $117,580 |
Go deeper
The best-paid occupations, ranked.
Open →Pay floorVirginia minimum wageThe state's hourly floor.
Open →PricesCost of living in VirginiaWhat a salary buys there.
Open →Between jobsVirginia unemployment benefitsThe weekly maximum and weeks payable.
Open →CalculatorSalary to hourly calculatorConvert any salary or hourly rate.
Open →NegotiateSalary negotiationAsk for the top of the range.
Open →All statesAverage salary by stateEvery state on one page.
Open →Disclosure: TryHired makes HIRED, a paid job-search program, so we have a conflict of interest when we mention it. Everything on this page is free to use without buying anything.
Questions people ask
What is the average salary in Virginia?
What is the median salary in Virginia?
What is a good salary in Virginia?
Does the average salary include self-employed people?
How this page is built
Every pay figure is a BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2025 estimate for all occupations in Virginia (occupation code 00-0000), copied from BLS's data file; the job-group and occupation rows come from the same file. The average is BLS's mean wage (total wages divided by jobs); the median is the wage in the middle. OEWS wages are straight-time gross pay: they include commissions, tips, production bonuses and cost-of-living allowances, and leave out overtime premiums, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses and benefits. BLS turns hourly wages into annual ones at 2,080 hours (40 hours for 52 weeks). Ranks, differences and shares are TryHired calculations from the BLS figures. Price levels are BEA Regional Price Parities.
- Household income: this page reports pay per job, not household or family income, which the Census Bureau measures differently.
- Starting pay: the figures include experienced workers. Entry-level pay is usually lower.
- Take-home pay: every figure is before taxes and deductions.
- Self-employment and farm work: not covered by OEWS (see the FAQ).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates: national, state and metropolitan-area data files (public domain).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS technical notes: what the survey counts as wages and jobs.
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024 (released Feb 19, 2026).