Statewide pay Government data
Auto body repairers in Virginia earn a statewide median of $57,760 a year, 12% above the typical U.S. metro, ranking #15 of 50 states and DC. About 3,720 people work in the trade statewide.
Statewide pay range
States ranked near Virginia
See all states on the auto body repairer overview.
Pay by city Government data
BLS publishes auto body repairer pay for 7 Virginia metros. The highest-paying is Virginia Beach at $60,100, followed by Charlottesville and Winchester.
| Metro | Median pay | Real pay | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia BeachVIRGINIA · VA | $60,100 | $61,363 | 820 |
| CharlottesvilleVIRGINIA · VA | $57,380 | $57,874 | 90 |
| WinchesterVIRGINIA · VA | $56,280 | $58,351 | 60 |
| BlacksburgVIRGINIA · VA | $54,330 | $58,602 | 100 |
| RichmondVIRGINIA · VA | $53,800 | $54,978 | 600 |
| HarrisonburgVIRGINIA · VA | $49,920 | $52,607 | 80 |
| RoanokeVIRGINIA · VA | $49,660 | $53,045 | 150 |
Pay: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (metro-level). Real pay: BEA price parities, 2024. How we calculate
Pay outside the cities Government data
BLS also reports pay for Virginia's rural (nonmetropolitan) regions.
BLS OEWS nonmetropolitan areas, May 2025.
The job (national)
Repair and refinish automotive vehicle bodies and straighten vehicle frames.
Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 3.7% from 2025 to 2035, with about 12,600 openings a year. Typical training: long-term on-the-job training.
Nationally, auto body repairers have 60 injuries or illnesses serious enough to miss work per 10,000 full-time workers, 31% below the rate for all jobs (87). The most common cause is being struck by or caught in objects and equipment.
What the work is like Government data
How often auto body repairers deal with each condition, from surveys of workers in the job.
Getting started usually takes some preparation (high school plus months of training).
O*NET 31.0 Work Context and Job Zones (U.S. Department of Labor), national.
Serious injuries & deaths reported to OSHA Government data
Virginia runs its own workplace-safety program (an OSHA State Plan), so its injury reports aren't in the federal dataset. Nationally, in states federal OSHA covers, auto body shops filed 77 severe injury reports from 2015 to 2024; the most common cause was contact with objects and equipment (53%).
OSHA Severe Injury Reports, January 2015–December 2024 (states under federal OSHA only).
Fatality investigations: OSHA Fatality Inspection Data, events 2015–2024, all states.
Where to train in Virginia Government data
21 schools in Virginia offer vehicle maintenance and repair programs below the bachelor's level, 15 of them at public colleges. Many people in this trade learn through an apprenticeship instead; a program can shorten it or get you hired as a helper.
Where published, graduates earned a median of $42,116 in their first year out.
| School | Credential | Yearly cost | Recent grads | First-year pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidewater Community College Norfolk, VA · Public | Certificate | $19,873 | 268 | $40,489 |
| Aviation Institute of Maintenance-Norfolk Norfolk, VA · Private for-profit | Certificate | $32,229 | 92 | $61,972 |
| Tidewater Tech-Trades Norfolk, VA · Private for-profit | Certificate | $35,412 | 75 | $34,749 |
| Aviation Institute of Maintenance-Manassas Manassas, VA · Private for-profit | Certificate | $29,677 | 66 | $54,605 |
| Advanced Technology Institute Virginia Beach, VA · Private for-profit | Certificate | $24,608 | 66 | $39,791 |
| Blue Ridge Community College Weyers Cave, VA · Public | Certificate | $20,735 | 63 | — |
| Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, VA · Public | Certificate | $14,123 | 53 | — |
| Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, VA · Public | Associate degree | $14,123 | 44 | $42,866 |
U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (data updated October 2026). Cost is the school's average yearly cost of attendance before financial aid; earnings are the median for graduates one year after finishing, shown only where the school has enough graduates to publish. “—” means not published.
Licensing in Virginia Official source
The main state licensing office in Virginia is the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. It can point you to the right license for auto body repairers.
Official Virginia licensing site ↗
Requirements for auto body repairers vary by state and sometimes by city; always confirm with the official agency.
Union membership
In 2025, 5.4% of wage and salary workers in Virginia were union members, below the U.S. rate of about 10% (#38 of 51 states and D.C.), and 6.4% were covered by a union contract. These figures cover all jobs in the state, not only auto body repairers.
BLS Union Members, 2025 (Current Population Survey), table 5.
Cities in Virginia
All trades in Virginia.