Richmond Paycheck Calculator (2026)

How the Richmond Paycheck Calculator: Take-Home Pay Works

This Richmond paycheck calculator estimates your take-home pay in Richmond, Virginia, using the 2026 federal brackets, Social Security, Medicare, Virginia income tax. Richmond workers pay Virginia's graduated income tax, which reaches 5.75% at a modest income, and no city income tax. Enter your salary, pay frequency, filing status and any pre-tax deduction to see net pay per paycheck and per year.

How Richmond paychecks are taxed

A Richmond paycheck is taxed federally and by Virginia, whose brackets are 2%, 3%, 5% and 5.75%, with the top rate beginning at only $17,000 of taxable income. Because of that, most workers pay a marginal rate of 5.75% on their wages after the state standard deduction. On $65,000, state tax is about $3,000, roughly 4.6% of gross pay. Virginia follows federal treatment of traditional 401(k) contributions.

Use Form VA-4 to set state withholding.

Local taxes and payroll deductions in Richmond

Richmond has no local income tax, no state disability insurance and no paid family leave deduction. State government, finance, health care, universities, defense contractors and legal services are large employers, and many workers commute across the region.

See the Virginia paycheck calculator for statewide rules.

Typical pay in the Richmond area

Employers in the Richmond, VA metro area reported roughly 660,350 jobs in May 2025. The median annual wage across all of them was $51,460 ($24.74 an hour), 8% below the Virginia median of $55,690 and 1% above the national median of $50,980. The average wage was higher, at $68,400, because a smaller number of high earners pull the average up; the median is the better guide to a typical paycheck.

After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and the Virginia taxes in this calculator, a single worker on that $51,460 median takes home about $41,383 a year, or $3,449 a month and $1,591.66 every two weeks.

Wage figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Richmond, VA metropolitan area. Take-home pay: this page's 2026 calculator, single filer, no pre-tax deductions, default settings.

What Richmond's largest occupations take home

Here are the jobs that employ the most people in the Richmond area. Each row shows the median salary and what a single filer keeps after 2026 taxes in Richmond.

The most common jobs are not the best paid ones: 10 of these 15 pay less than the $51,460 median for all workers, which is why the overall median is lower than many people expect.

Worked example: $65,000 salary in Richmond

A single Richmond worker earning $65,000, paid every two weeks and contributing $100 per paycheck to a traditional 401(k), has gross pay of $2,500.00 per paycheck. Federal income tax after the $2,600 deferral and the $16,100 standard deduction is about $5,308. Social Security is $4,030 and Medicare is $943. Virginia state income tax is about $2,774.

Net pay is about $49,346 a year, or $1,897.91 per paycheck, which is 75.9% of gross pay. Change any input in the calculator above to test your own situation.

Best-paying common jobs in Richmond

Among occupations with at least 1,000 workers in the Richmond area, these have the highest median pay. Federal tax takes a larger share at these salaries, so compare the take-home column rather than the salary when weighing offers.

What makes the Richmond job market different

A location quotient compares how common a job is locally with its share nationwide: 2.0 means twice as concentrated as the U.S. overall. These occupations stand out in the Richmond area and say a lot about which industries hire there.

How Richmond wages compare for well-known jobs

Median annual wages for well-known jobs in the Richmond area, the whole state of Virginia and the United States. Pay usually tracks living costs, so a higher wage does not always mean more money left over.

Entry-level and hourly pay in Richmond

The lowest-paid 10% of workers in the Richmond area earn under $14.44 an hour. Common hourly jobs pay the median rates below; a 40-hour week at that rate takes home the amount shown after 2026 taxes. Check the current Virginia minimum wage on the U.S. Department of Labor state minimum wage page, since several states raise it each year.

Richmond wages by type of work

BLS groups every job into broad career fields. Here is how many people work in each across the Richmond area, the field's median salary and what that salary takes home in Richmond. Management pays the most at a median of $129,880; food preparation and serving related pays the least at $34,300.

Starting vs. experienced pay in Richmond

The median hides a wide range. The lowest-paid 10% in a job are often new to it, while the top 10% are usually experienced, specialized or in management. The ranges below for common Richmond jobs show how much room there is to grow, with take-home pay at each level.

Cost of living in Richmond: rent, sales tax and housing

Richmond is more affordable than Northern Virginia, with one-bedroom rents around $1,300 to $1,700 a month. The combined sales tax rate is 5.3%, with groceries taxed at a reduced rate, and property taxes are moderate.

Hourly wages in Richmond: what different pay rates take home

Many Richmond workers are paid by the hour, so here is the estimated take-home pay at common wage rates for a single filer working 2,080 hours a year, using 2026 federal rules and the Richmond and state taxes in this calculator. The figures assume no pre-tax deductions, so your own paycheck will differ once benefits are included.

Overtime is taxed as ordinary wages, so an extra hour is worth less than the wage rate after tax. Use the hourly paycheck calculator to include overtime hours and different pay frequencies.

How a 401(k) contribution changes a Richmond paycheck

On a $65,000 salary with no retirement savings, estimated take-home pay in Richmond is $51,484 a year. Contributing 6% to a traditional 401(k), which is $3,900, reduces take-home pay by only $3,208 because the contribution lowers federal income tax and, in most cases, state income tax. A 10% contribution of $6,500 lowers take-home pay by $5,346.

In other words, each dollar you save costs roughly 82 cents of take-home pay at this income. If your employer matches contributions, the true cost is even lower, so contributing at least enough to receive the full match is one of the most reliable ways to raise your total pay. Roth contributions cost the full dollar of take-home pay but grow tax-free.

Single or married: a $120,000 household in Richmond

Filing status changes the outcome even when income is the same. A single filer earning $120,000 in Richmond takes home about $87,164 a year, while a married couple filing jointly with one earner at $120,000 takes home about $95,251, a difference of $8,087 a year, because the joint standard deduction is $32,200 and the joint brackets are twice as wide.

If both spouses work, each employer withholds as if the job were the only income, which can leave you under-withheld, so use the multiple jobs paycheck calculator and update Form W-4. Head-of-household filers with a qualifying dependent can use the head of household calculator.

Budgeting on the median Richmond wage

On the $51,460 median, the common guideline of spending no more than 30% of gross pay on housing allows rent of about $1,286 a month. Using the 50/30/20 rule on the $3,449 monthly take-home pay, that is about $1,724 for needs such as rent, food and transport, $1,035 for wants and $690 for savings and debt payments.

If rents run above $1,286 for the home you want, the usual fixes are a roommate, a longer commute or a second income in the household; the rent affordability calculator tests your own numbers.