Atmospheric and Space Scientists in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$77,888
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$28,382
26.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$79,141
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$106,270
Kept after tax
$77,888
Worth in national money
$79,141
State rank
17
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Minnesota pays atmospheric and space scientists around $106,270 at the midpoint, 17 of 47 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Within Minnesota this is well-paid work. Of 490 occupations with published figures in the state, atmospheric and space scientists ranks 53 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $106,270, tax leaves $77,888, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $79,141 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $111,820, since top earners drag the number up.
- For atmospheric and space scientists the Minnesota median is $106,270, ranking 17 of 47 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Ranked against every occupation Minnesota publishes a median for, atmospheric and space scientists sits 53 of 490 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Minnesota sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for atmospheric and space scientists — median $106,270 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $77,888 retained, $79,141 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $111,820 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 | $61,620 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $106,270 |
| Top tenth earn over | $149,340 |
| This salary | $106,270 |
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 Minnesota | $77,888 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $83,591 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,880 |
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 | $98,163 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,504 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
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 Minnesota earn under $106,270 and half over. The published range runs $61,620 at the tenth percentile to $149,340 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Minnesota the take-home figure of $77,888, from $106,270, 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 53 of 490 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $79,141, the adjusted value of that $106,270 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Minnesota. 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 53 of 490 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for atmospheric and space scientists in Minnesota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $61,620 to $149,340; 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 Minnesota is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $77,888 from $106,270. 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 53 of 490 locally.
- This $79,141 adjusted figure, worked from $106,270, 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 53 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 53 of 490 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 $111,820 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?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $61,620 and the top tenth $149,340 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Minnesota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $79,141 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Minnesota adds its own income tax on top — which is why $77,888 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 47 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
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 Minnesota is $111,820. 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 ($61,620) and the ninetieth ($149,340) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Minnesota's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $79,141 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $77,888 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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.