Chemists in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,928
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$13,512
21.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,451
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$64,440
Kept after tax
$50,928
Worth in national money
$52,451
State rank
50
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Maine is among the lower-paying states for chemists. The middle earner takes $64,440, ranking 50 of 51 states — about 29.37% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Maine, this sits in the middle: 184 of 484 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $64,440, tax leaves $50,928, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $52,451 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $70,750, since top earners drag the number up.
- Maine ranks 50 of 51 for chemists, with a median of $64,440 — about 29.37% 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.
- Chemists ranks 184 of 484 occupations in Maine by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for chemists — median $64,440 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $50,928 retained, $52,451 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $70,750 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Chemists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $50,640 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,360 |
| This salary | $64,440 |
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 Maine | $50,928 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $53,958 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,076 |
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 | $60,669 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,720 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $64,440 as a midpoint for Maine, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $50,640 and the ninetieth is $100,360 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Maine's $50,928, worked from $64,440. 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 184 of 484.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $52,451 uses one figure for the whole of Maine. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 184.
- The Maine median of $64,440 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $50,640 to $100,360. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Maine take-home of $50,928, on $64,440 for work ranking 184 of 484 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 184 of 484 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $52,451, worked from $64,440, 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 Maine address, on work sitting at 184 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $70,750, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $50,640 and the top tenth $100,360 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Maine is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $52,451 in national terms.
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 Maine's own levy, $50,928 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Maine is $70,750. 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 ($50,640) and the ninetieth ($100,360) 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?
Maine'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 $52,451 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 $50,928 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.