Atmospheric and Space Scientists in Connecticut
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$64,774
after federal, FICA and Connecticut tax
Tax takes
$20,336
23.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$62,469
Connecticut costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Connecticut — 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
$85,110
Kept after tax
$64,774
Worth in national money
$62,469
State rank
34
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Connecticut is among the lower-paying states for atmospheric and space scientists. The middle earner takes $85,110, ranking 34 of 47 states — about 14.09% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Atmospheric and space scientists ranks 136 among 482 occupations Connecticut publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $85,110, tax leaves $64,774 — and because Connecticut is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $62,469 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $116,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- Connecticut ranks 34 of 47 for atmospheric and space scientists, with a median of $85,110 — about 14.09% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Position 136 of 482 in Connecticut places atmospheric and space scientists in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- After tax, $64,774 remains from the Connecticut median of $85,110 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $62,469 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $116,270 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Atmospheric and Space Scientists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $69,370 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $85,110 |
| Top tenth earn over | $234,100 |
| This salary | $85,110 |
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 Connecticut | $64,774 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $68,705 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,233 |
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 | $79,522 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,372 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of atmospheric and space scientists in Connecticut earn under $85,110 and half over. The published range runs $69,370 at the tenth percentile to $234,100 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Connecticut the take-home figure of $64,774, from $85,110, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 136 of 482 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $62,469, the adjusted value of that $85,110 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Connecticut. 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 136 of 482 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for atmospheric and space scientists in Connecticut, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $69,370 to $234,100; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Connecticut is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $64,774 from $85,110. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 136 of 482 locally.
- This $62,469 adjusted figure, worked from $85,110, 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 136 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 136 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $116,270 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $69,370 at the bottom tenth to $234,100 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $62,469 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Connecticut's own levy, $64,774 remains.
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 47 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 Connecticut is $116,270. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($69,370) and the ninetieth ($234,100) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Connecticut's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $62,469 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $64,774 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Connecticut 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.