Chemists in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$64,686
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$17,044
20.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$63,979
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$81,730
Kept after tax
$64,686
Worth in national money
$63,979
State rank
37
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for chemists is on the low side in Arizona. The middle earner gets $81,730. That is 37 of 51 states, and about 10.42% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Arizona. It ranks 104 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $81,730, tax leaves $64,686, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $63,979 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $92,120, since top earners drag the number up.
- For chemists, Arizona sits in the lower band at $81,730, ranking 37 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 10.42%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Arizona, chemists ranks 104 of 491 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for chemists — median $81,730 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $64,686 retained, $63,979 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $92,120 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Chemists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $53,520 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $81,730 |
| Top tenth earn over | $135,940 |
| This salary | $81,730 |
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 Arizona | $64,686 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $66,327 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,276 |
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 | $79,398 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,906 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 chemists in Arizona earn under $81,730 and half over. The published range runs $53,520 at the tenth percentile to $135,940 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Arizona's $64,686, worked from $81,730. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 104 of 491.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $63,979 uses one figure for the whole of Arizona. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 491 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 104.
- Figures are distribution medians for chemists in Arizona, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $53,520 to $135,940; 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.
- The Arizona take-home of $64,686, on $81,730 for work ranking 104 of 491 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 104 of 491 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $63,979, worked from $81,730, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Arizona address, on work sitting at 104 of 491 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 $92,120 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $53,520, the highest tenth $135,940, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $63,979 rather than its face figure.
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 Arizona's own levy, $64,686 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Arizona is $92,120. 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 ($53,520) and the ninetieth ($135,940) 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?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $63,979 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 $64,686 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.