A series of laboratory tests were carried out to investigate the vertical bearing capacity of a single pile in saline soil. In addition, an elastic-plastic solution is proposed for an axially loaded single pile considering the variation in the shear stiffness coefficient. Using the virtual pile method based on soil and employing the ideal elastoplastic load transfer function, an analytical solution for piles in saline soil was obtained. The variation in the shear modulus with depth was considered through the variation of the confining pressure with increasing depth. The load-settlement (Q-S) curves were obtained by model tests and elastic-plastic solutions. The theoretical calculation model was validated by comparison to the experimental results. By analyzing the influence of the salt content on load-settlement curve and pile tip resistance-settlement curve, the vertical bearing capacity of single pile in saline soil was further analyzed. In addition, the effects of Na₂SO₄ content, the length of the virtual pile of the soil, and the length-diameter ratio on the bearing performance of a single pile in saline soil were examined. It was found that the factors that most significantly affect the single pile bearing capacity in saline soil are the pile’s length-to-diameter ratio and soil salinity.